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SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT i 



A History and Criticism 



BY 

HORACE BOOKWALTER DRURY 

Instructor in Economics ani Sociology 
The Ohio State University 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
191S 



<■ 



1 



SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 



A History and Criticism 



BY 

HOEACE BOOKWALTER DEURY 

Instructor in Economies and Sociology 
The Ohio State University 

21 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
1915 



^%^^ 



N^ 



Copyright, 1915 

BY 

HORACE BOOKWALTER DRURY 



m 3 ^^ 



I 



TO 



A. W. D. 

AND 

S. B. D. 



PREFACE 



This monograph has been written under the super- 
vision of Professor Henry R. Seager, who suggested the 
field to be covered, and brightened the way by his en- 
couragement. From his teaching and counsel arose the 
wish to treat the subject from the broadly-social point 
of view. 

Most of the men whose work is described in the fol- 
lowing pages have given me more or less of their time. 
But my debt on this score is mainly to Robert T. Kent, 
editor of Industrial Engineering, He has been my 
most useful guide as to the personalities and concrete 
events which constitute the real scientific management. 

My friend, Mr. E. F. Simonds, gave indispensable as- 
sistance in the preparation of the first draft. I have 
recently profited by a number of suggestions offered by 
Dr. Carl E. Parry, of the Ohio State University, who 
read most of the manuscript. 

Horace B. Drury. 

Ohio State University, 
March 9, 1915. 
281] 7 



r y 

'■ TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART I 
A History of Scientific Management 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

The Meaning of Scientific Management 15 

1. The Origin of the Term 15 

2. The Movement Briefly Described 22 

3. The Boundaries of Scientific Management 27 



CHAPTER II 

Early Attempts at a Solution of the Wages Problem 30 

1. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers 31 

2. The Wages Problem 32 

3. Profit Sharing 36 

4. Henry R. Towne's « Gain-Sharing " 38 

5. Frederick A. Halsey's « Premium Plan " 41 

6. The " Rowan Plan " . ^ 50 

CHAPTER III 

The Genesis of the Principles of Scientific Management 53 

1. The First Scientific Management 54 

a. Elementary Time Study 56 

b. The Difi"erential Rate 59 

c. Conclusions , . 63 

2. The Scope of Scientific Management Enlarged 65 

a. The First Phase of Complete Scientific Management : Securing the 

Initiative of the Workmen c . . . 66 

9 



10 TABLE OF CONTENTS [284 

PAGB 

b. The Second Phase of Complete Scientific Management : Improving 

Methods of Work 69 

(i) Standardization of Tools and Equipment 69 

(2) Routing and Scheduling , 71 

(3) Instruction Cards 73 

(4) Motion Study 77 

(5) Selection of Workmen . 79 

(6) Supplies 80 

(7) Conclusions , 81 

c. The Third Phase of Complete Scientific Management : Organization 82 
3. Conclusion : The Genesis of the Principles of Scientific Management . . 87 

CHAPTER IV 

Lives of the Leaders — Including certain Contributions to the Enrich- 
ment of Scientific Management , 88 

1. Frederick Winslow Taylor 88 

2. Henry L. Gantt 92 

3. Carl G. Earth 96 

4. Horace K. Hathaway 99 

5. Morris L. Cooke loi 

6. Sanford E. Thompson 106 

7. Frank B. Gilbreth 108 

8. Harrington Emerson 113 

9. The Scientific-Management Men as a Body 117 

CHAPTER V 

A Survey of the Trades and Plants in Which Scientific Manage- 
ment HAS been Introduced 120 

1. The Present Status of the Historic Illustrations of Scientific Manage- 

ment , . . . 120 

a. The Midvale Steel Company 120 

b. The Bethlehem Steel Company 120 

c. Bicycle-Ball-Bearing Inspection 124 

d. Bricklaying 125 

e. The Santa Fe 126 

f. Conclusions as to the Past of Scientific Management 129 

2. A Study of Several Installations of Contemporary Importance .... 130 

a. The Tabor Manufacturing Company 130 

b. The Link-Belt Company 134 

c. The Watertown Arsenal 138 

d. The Cotton Industry , 141 

3. Extent of the Introduction of Scientific Management . 144 



285] TABLE OF CONTENTS n 

PART II 

A Critical Review 
Of Important Aspects of Scientific Management 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VI 

The PRODucTivrry of Scientific Management 153 

1. The Value of the Initiative of Workmen 153 

2. The Extent to which Planning may be Profitably Carried 157 

3. The Place of Organization in Scientific Management 161 

4. How Much can Scientific Management Increase the National Income? 163 

CHAPTER Vll 

Scientific Management as a Solution of the Labor Problem ... 169 

1. The Views of the Organization Experts with Respect to Trade Unions . 170 

2. A Sketch of the Relations between Scientific Management and Organ- 

ized Labor 175 

3. Is Scientific Management a Satisfactory Substitute for the Collective 

Bargain ? 178 

a. Scientific Management Removes from Labor Some Incentives towards 
Organization 179 

b. Scientific Management, However, Does Not Adequately Perform the 

Functions of the Collective Bargain 181 

4. The Possibility of Coordinating Trade Unionism and Scientific Manage- 

ment . . . c 185 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Human Side , . 188 

1. The Charge that Employees are Overworked 189 

2. The Charge that Men are made Automatons 195 

3. Promotion — Skill — Wages 199 

4. The Humanizing of Management 202 

CHAPTER IX 

Other Criticisms and Conclusions 205 

1. Scientific Management But One Factor in Social Life 205 

2. The Larger Significance of Scientific Management 207 

3. The OriginaUty of Scientific Management 210 

4. The Future 214 

Index 217 



:p 



PART I 
A HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 



CHAPTER I 

The Meaning of Scientific Management 

i. the origin of the term 

The significance which has come to be associated with 
the words scientific management may be traced to an 
event which occurred in the latter part of 1910. In 
the early summer of that year, the railroads of the United 
States north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers and 
east of the Mississippi had filed with the Interstate 
Commerce Commission new freight tariffs, so framed as 
to involve a general and considerable advance in rates. 
The Interstate Commerce Commission had, on July 13, 
instituted an inquiry into the reasonableness of the pro- 
posed advances, and there had then followed in Septem- 
ber, October, and November a series of hearings. The 
vast sums of money involved, and the fact that the im- 
pending decision might become an important prece- 
dent, led to a contest of extraordinary intensity on the 
part of both the railroads and their opponents, the 
shippers. 

It happened that Louis D. Brandeis had assumed the 
leading position among the fifteen or twenty attorneys 
lined up against the proposed advances. The railroads, 
upon whom the law had placed the burden of proof, had 
maintained that the advances were necessitated by an in- 
crease in operating costs, due mainly to a recent rise in 
wages. Wages, they pleaded, make up nearly one-half 
289] 15 



l6 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [290 

of the total cost of railroad operation; and wages had 
been advanced in the spring of 1910 by from five to 
eight per cent. Therefore the railroads must receive 
greater revenue; or they would not have funds enough 
to make desired improvements, or the credit requisite 
for the successful flotation of their securities. In the 
face of these arguments, Mr. Brandeis dramatically took 
the aggressive, and striking out on a novel and unex- 
pected tack, he declared that there was a means by which 
the railroads could raise wages, and at the same time — 
instead of increasing costs — actually reduce them. This 
system, which meant high wages and low labor-cost, he 
called scientific management. 

Where did Mr. Brandeis find scientific management ? 

It may be stated that, prior to November, 1910, 
there was nothing which was generally known by that 
title. The actual principles of the industrial system which 
Brandeis had in mind had indeed been in process of forma- 
tion for about thirty years ; but " scientific management, " 
the name, had not yet become an all-embracing slogan. 
Research shows some adoption of the parts of this 
phrase : the word "management '' had been very commonly 
used, as in the phrase " modern management ;" and " sci- 
entific " also was a favorite term. Even the combination, 
" scientific management,'' had occurred fortuitously in the 
writings of Frederick W. Taylor, the great leader in the 
movement, as early as 1903.' It is said, too, that the full 
expression was, at a later date, designedly used by Taylor 
in explaining his ideas to visitors at Chestnut Hill, Phila- 
delphia. But these instances are cited merely by way of 
exception ; there were other real names for the system — 

^**Shop Management," Transactions of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, vol. xxiv, p. 1366. 



291] MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 17 

names more precise and much more common. " Scien- 
tific management " had a definite meaning for few per- 
sons, if any. 

Nor was this general ignorance merely one of words. 
The idea back of the new movement was itself unfamiliar 
to most persons. The essentials of scientific manage- 
ment had indeed been presented to an inner circle in 
papers read before the American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers ; while a considerably wider public had noted 
the results of its application on the Santa Fe railroad. 
But there was not, as later, a widespread popular move- 
ment, nor any general acquaintance with either principles 
or results. 

Such was the situation when Mr. Brandeis happened 
to be retained by a manufacturer ^ whose plant was operat- 
ing under the plan, today known by the name of scientific 
management, but then unchristened. Brandeis, after 
studying the plant's organization, had become convinced 
of its intrinsic merit. When therefore the railroads ad- 
vanced the plea outlined above, he determined to propose, 
as an alternate solution of their dilemma, the adoption 
of the new principles : he made preparation to put on 
the witness stand some ten of the leading men connected 
with the movement. 

As a preliminary step along this line, Mr. Brandeis 
called together several of his prospective witnesses for 
the purpose of working out a plan of presentation. He 
desired that they should reach an agreement whereby the 
same things should always be called by the same names, 
and that — most important of all — a single term might be 
found which would apply to the system as a whole. 
This word or phrase should properly describe the system, 

'The late W. H. McElwain, shoe manufacturer. 



l8 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^2^2. 

and at the same time appeal to the imagination. The 
conference, held in the month of October, 1910, included 
five or six persons. After those present had considered 
the merits of about half a dozen different phrases, all 
agreed that, for the purpose of the hearings, the term 
*' scientific management" should officially designate the 
system.^ 

The witnesses were introduced on the afternoon of 
November 21, and the hearing of their testimony, to- 
gether with cross-examination, took up almost all of 
two days and a half. The witnesses testified that in their 
experience the application of scientific management — 
whether to the handling of pig iron, the shoveling of 
coal, bricklaying, or machinery manufacture — had in- 
creased the output per workman to at least two or three 
times its former volume. Especially startling was the 
statement of Harrington Emerson that the railroads of 
the United States might save $1,000,000 a day by paying 
greater attention to efficiency of operation. Early in 
January following Mr. Brandeis submitted a long brief, 
about half of which was devoted to the subject of scien- 
tific management. A few days later his final oral argu- 
ment on this topic was delivered before the commission. 

The effect of the insertion of the scientific-management 
argument into the rate-hearings contest was felt almost 
instantaneously by the whole country. Only a few days 
after the introduction of the evidence, the early Decem- 
ber reviews^ of current events gave great space to the 

^This meeting, held at the apartments of H. L. Gantt, was, accord- 
ing to R. T. Kent, attended by Louis D. Brandeis, Henry L. Gantt, 
Frank B. Gilbreth, Henry V. Sheel, and Robert T. Kent. We are told 
by Mr. Brandeis that among the names suggested were "Taylor Sys- 
tem," " Functional Management," " Shop Management," and " Effi- 
ciency." 

^See Outlook and Survey for Dec. 3, 1910. 



293] MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT jg 

dramatic testimony of some of the witnesses. By Janu- 
ary, one of the leading railroad journals ' had begun a 
series of articles in which the railroads were defended 
against the implication that they were inefficiently man- 
aged. And through January, February, March, and 
every month of 191 1, the periodical press, popular as 
well as technical, was filled with explanation after expla- 
nation as to what scientific management is, why it is 
good, or why it is worthless. By the fall of 191 1, Dart- 
mouth College had arranged for a conference to spread 
information as to the merits of scientific management ; ^ 
while on the other hand, owing to the demands of or- 
ganized labor, a special House committee was inquiring 
as to whether Congress should forbid the system in the 
government service. ^ In March, 1912, an efficiency so- 
ciety '^ was organized in New York City for the specific 
purpose of applying the principles of efficiency in every 
department of life. And by the time of writing this 
treatise many of the leading universities have established 
courses on scientific management. ^ The vision of the 

^Railway Age Gazette, Jan. -July, 191 1. 

^ See Addresses and Discussions at the Conference on Scientific Man- 
agement held Oct. 12, 13, 14, 1911. First Tuck School Conference, 
Dartmouth College Conferences. Published by the Amos Tuck School 
of Administration and Finance, Dartmouth College, 1912. 

^This committee was composed of Wm. B. Wilson, chairman, Wm. 
C. Redfield, and JohnQ. Tilson. See House of Representatives' Report 
no. 403, 62d Congress, 2d Session, for the committee's guarded ap- 
proval of some and condemnation of other of the features of scientific 
management. Also see Hearings before Special Committee of the ly 
House of Representatives to Investigate the Taylor and Other Systems 
of Shop Managemeut , published in three volumes by the Government 
Printing Office in 1912. 

* Later incorporated as The Efficiency Society, Incorporated. 

^To mention a few, Harvard, Columbia, New York University, Syr- 
acuse, and Pennsylvania State are known to have introduced special 



20 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [294 

movement is suggested by the statement of a Harvard 
instructor' to the effect that scientific management 
seems " to be the most important problem from the 
practical and theoretical point of view now before the 
industrial world." Significant also is the exhaustive 
treatment of scientific management in a series of ad- 
dresses delivered before the Western Economic Associa- 
tion, and published in the Journal of Political Economy 
in May, June, and July, 191 3. 

In order to place before the eye further and final proof 
that it was the rate-hearings episode which introduced 
scientific management to the public, a statistical analysis 
has been made : 

The yearly output of accessible periodical contributions 
whose titles have contained the term ^^ scientific manage- 
ment'' ^ has been counted, and found to be — 

Prior to the rate-advance hearings None 

During December, iqio . . . . 2 

During 191 1 26 

During 1912 14 

These figures, which tell the story of the discovery of 
scientific management, are based upon a comprehensive 
bibHography of the " efficiency " literature appearing 
between 1898 and 1913.^ 

series of lectures or regular courses along the general lines of scientific 
management ; while portions of the literature and some of the principles 
of scientific management are introduced into courses in economics or 
engineering very generally. 

^ C. Bertrand Thompson. 

'' Or ''science of management .' ' 

^" Select list of references on scientific management and efficiency," 
compiled under the direction of H. H. B. Meyer, chief bibliographer, 
Library of Congress, and published in the " Efficiency Number " (May, 
1913) of Special Libraries. 



295] MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 21 

That not only the name '' scientific management, " but 
the idea as well, became public property because of the 
rate-hearings contest, is statistically demonstrated by the 
enormous growth in the total literature on " efficiency, " 
which occurred immediately after and because of the hear- 
ings : 

All Periodical Articles on Efficiency Subjects} 

1907 8 1910 (6 of these in December^ 15 

1908 5 iQii , 59 

1909 7 1912 38 

Since many articles are about scientific management, but 
do not contain the term in the title, as a means of meas- 
uring the strength of the scientific-management move- 
ment this last table is more serviceable than the first. 

The rate-advance hearings have now been treated at suf- 
ficient length to give the important result for the purpose 
of obtaining which the topic was introduced. The sub- 
ject was taken up because it was deemed advantageous 
to determine at the outset just what is meant by scien- 
tific management. The foregoing paragraphs have made 
it clear, it is hoped, that if we wish to know what the 
term embraces, we must approach the subject from the 
point of view of Mr. Brandeis and the group who testified 
before the Interstate Commerce Commission. These 
were the men who first gave currency to the words " sci- 
entific management ;" it was their account of it which 
led to the recent wave of public interest, — their inter- 
pretation which determined the public's conception as 
to the meaning of the expression.'' 

^ Meyer, op cit. 

^The scientific-management movement may therefore be regarded as 
pretty well defined by the thirteen names which, in one connection or 



22 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [296 

2. THE MOVEMENT BRIEFLY DESCRIBED 

The roots of scientific management are to be found in 
the Hfe and thought of the late Frederick W. Taylor/ Mr. 
Taylor, who had been a machinist and then a gang-boss in 
the employ of the Midvale Steel Company of Philadel- 

another, creep into Mr. Brandeis' brief as those of persons identified 
with the system. Frederick W. Taylor is named as the discoverer of 
the earlier principles. From correspondence with Mr. Brandeis we 
learn that he shares the common view that " Mr. Taylor's contribution 
was of course greater than any other." As early associates of Taylor, 
Brandeis mentions H. L. Gantt and C. G. Barth. As experts who en- 
; tered the field slightly later, he called as witnesses H. K. Hathaway, 
"^ F. B. Gilbreth, and Harrington Emerson. As supervisors of plants 
where scientific management has been a notable success, may be classi- 
fied H. V. Sheel and H. P. Kendall; as officers of corporations where 
scientific management has been installed, H. R. Towne and J. M. 
Dodge; as editors who have written about scientific management, R. T. 
Kent and J. B. Going. The name of J. H. Williams, who had intro- 
duced certain features of scientific management in a unionized printing 
establishment, completes the list. This ample list gives us our bearings. 
The remainder of this treatise will be a study, based upon a variety of 
sources, of the system which, in view of these names, we understand to 
be scientific management. 

In spite of the brilliancy of Mr. Brandeis' campaign, that part of his 
argument which dealt with scientific management seems to have had 
little effect upon the Interstate Commerce Commission. In a report 
covering 64 pages the commission dismissed the subject of scientific 
management in two short paragraphs with the remark that the system 
was everywhere in an experimental stage, and that it had not been 
shown that these methods could be introduced into railroad operation to 
any considerable extent. The commission indeed decided against per- 
mitting an advance. But the main reason given was this: that the net 
earnings of the roads had been so liberal in the past that they could allow 
the men higher wages and still pay adequate dividends. The general 
question of efficiency of operation seems to have come in as an alternate 
consideration of rather secondary importance. The commission warned 
the railroads that, even if they should find in the future that their reve- 
nues were indeed inadequate, it would then devolve upon them to ex- 
plain away the commission's impression that they had not been giving 
sufficient attention to economy of operation, nor adopted the superior 
\ methods used in competitive (non-monopolistic) industry. 
^Died March 21, 1915. 



297] MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 23 

phia, was promoted in 1882 to the position of machine- 
shop foreman. During his experience as a workman, 
Taylor had been constantly impressed by the failure of 
his neighbors to produce more than about one-third of a 
good day's work. Wages in the Midvale shop were on 
a piece-work basis, and the men were afraid to let the 
management guess how large a product they could really 
turn out because it might mean a cut. This tendency 
on the part of the workmen had resulted in a war be- 
tween Taylor, the gang-boss, who was trying to induce 
the men to work faster, and the workmen under him, 
who were determined that by fair means or foul they 
would avoid working faster. As a result of this struggle, 
life to Taylor had bec(5me* hardly worth living. Accord- 
ingly, shortly after he was given the greater authority of 
foreman, he determined to work out some system of 
management by which the interests of the workmen and 
of the management would be made the same. 

The burning thought that possessed the mind of Mr. 
Taylor in those days was this — that the difficulty at the 
root of the whole matter was lack of knowledge as to 
what actually constituted a day's work. How could the 
men be held accountable for their full duty when the 
management had no idea of a man's capacity? Accord- 
ingly, the first thing which Taylor tried to do was to 
remove all obscurity on this point by making a scientific 
study of the time which it necessarily takes to do work. 
The thoroughness and persistence with which he applied 
himself to the accomplishment of this task is eloquently 
vouched for by the fact that in the one field of cutting 
metals he carried on research for twenty-six years and 
at a cost of $150,000 or $200,000. 

But all this study in itself did nothing more than clear 
the way. The task having been determined, the next 



24 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [298 

important thing was to make sure that it was performed. 
High pay for success, loss in case of failure — these were 
the two sides of the system by which Mr. Taylor pro- 
posed to push the workman from beneath and allure him 
from above, until it would be at once his necessity and 
his joy to make production leap forward and upward to 
the maximum. So there came from the earliest days to 
be associated with the name ''scientific management," the 
principle of„ the differential rate, a scheme which remained 
a favorite with scientific-management votaries until the 
invention of the bonus and other devices, which accom- 
plish the same purpose in a somewhat different way. 

This effort to arouse the initiative of the workman and 
provide a means by which it becomes to his advantage 
to do his best constitutes, historically speaking, the first 
phase of scientific management. A second side began to 
be practiced simultaneously with the first, but received 
no great recognition in and for itself until the late nine- 
ties. This second aspect of scientific management is the 
effort to control, not the quantity of effo7^t on the part 
of the workman, but the manner in which the work is 
done. Standardization of tools and equipment, routing 
and scheduling, the issuance of instruction cards to the 
men, the training of the employee in the most improved 
and scientific ways of performing his work, the selection 
of men for jobs for which their physical and mental 
make-up peculiarly fits them, more satisfactory systems 
for the management of stores — all these are features 
which originated incidentally in the course of pursuing 
the first aim of scientific management ; but the incidental 
advantage resulting from their application has become 
so great that to-day these activities assume much prom- 
inence for their own sake. 

As the third and last phase of scientific management, 



299] MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 25 -? 

we shall regard modifications of organization. Changes 
in organization were necessitated by the enlargement of 
the functions undertaken by the management. As a 
matter of fact a novel type of management has been 
evolved which has become quite distinctive.^ 

Mr. Taylor early began to gather about himself a group 
of disciples. These disciples, though inspired in large 
measure by the vision and courage of their leader, were 
yet more than mere imitators. Taylor, in spite of his 
warm championship of practice as over against theory, was 
himself a man of great ideas — ideas which were consider- 
ably in advance of what had yet been fully worked out. 
It was largly as aids in putting these ideas into practice 
that his followers have made their impress upon scientific 
management. Not only in the practical administration 

^ Worth noting, but rather unclassifiable, is another aspect of scientific 
management much emphasized in recent years. It is held that scientific 
management produces a complete revalution in the mental attitude of 
workingmen and management, the one towards the other. Instead of 
spending strength fighting for the biggest share of the surplus earnings, 
as under other systems, the two groups enter into friendly cooperation 
and mutual help, and thus turn all their attention to the task of making 
the surplus so enormously great that there is enough for all. 

The greater part of this " mental revolution" we would classify as a 
by-product growing out of the first phase of scientific management 
wherein the system aims to so adjust wages that it will be to the inter- 
est of all to enlarge the output. However, in this Mr. Taylor and his 
associates would perhaps not concur. They seem to regard the new 
spirit (especially on the management's side) as an original cause, as 
well as a result of their smoothly-working system. The mental change, 
they declare, is the essence, while the mechanical features are but use- 
ful adjuncts. They frequently minimize the importance of devices such 
as time study, wage-payment schemes, instruction cards, and improved 
organization. 

Valuable though "harmony" may be, it seems to us too intangible 
and too general an idea for any one group to regard it as the basis of its 
industrial system. Only when an ideal has become a plan, do we have 
a system. 



I 



26 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [300 

of plants, but also in developing the more subtle math- 
ematical laws governing the operation of machines, and 
in applying new principles to wage systems and manage- 
ment in general, have these associates molded the outer 
form of, and given 'fuller content to the Taylor science 
of management, 
i The first colleague of Taylor was Henry L. Gantt, in- 
j ventor of the bonus system, and today generally known 
I as the surest result-getter of the men who are introducing 
scientific management. A dozen years later, but still 
among the earlier men, came Carl G. Barth, mathema- 
tician, and inventor of the slide rule. With these names 
may be associated H. K. Hathaway, famous for his skill 
in perfecting scientific management for the Tabor Manu- 
facturing Company, and the eminent and versatile Morris 
L, Cooke, director of public works for the city of 
Philadelphia. Sanford E. Thompson performed pioneer 
work in extending the principles of scientific manage- 
ment from the machine shop into the building trades ; 
while, a few years ago, Frank B. Gilbreth won great 
admiration by his display of genius in the reorganization 
of bricklaying. Finally may be mentioned Harrington 
Emerson who, in addition to his commercial activities, 
has had much to do with making ''ef^ciency" an every- 
day word. 

To go into details as to the extent to which these 
men have applied scientific management would be to 
draw out unduly this preliminary sketch, and steal from 
the chapters which are to follow their proper material. 
However, it may give definiteness to our conception of 
scientific management to mention a few of the more 
notable examples of its introduction. After the early in- 
novations at Midvale, the next important scene of ad- 
vance was at the plant of the Bethlehem Steel Company, 



301 ] MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 27 

where from 1898 to 1901, as a result of the combined 
efforts of the leading scientific-management practitioners 
of the day, epoch-making progress was made. It was 
here that the interesting studies of pig-iron handling 
and shoveling w^ere made. It was during this period 
that the Taylor-White high-speed steel was developed, 
and that the Barth slide rule was invented. It w^as at 
the Bethlehem shops that the Gantt bonus system was 
evolved. The most important development of scientific 
management in the last ten years has been in the plants 
of the Tabor Manufacturing Company and the Link-Belt 
Company, both of Philadelphia. Scientific management 
has now, however, grown too large for the limits of any 
one plant or trade. Besides its introduction into ma- 
chine shops and the building trades, scientific manage- 
ment has been applied in the textile industry, the print- 
ing industry, and so many others that the list grows 
monotonous. Of special interest to the public has been 
the introduction by Harrington Emerson of certain of 
the principles of scientific management in the shops of 
the Santa Fe railway, and its installation by the United 
States government at the Watertown Arsenal. 

3. THE BOUNDARIES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 

The description of the preceding sections may now be 
followed by some conclusions as to the boundaries of sci- 
entific m.anagement. In the first place, the system may 
be set down as confined to that one side of human life 
wherein men cooperate to attain industrial ends. The 
goal is usually material wealth; the actors must include 
a leader and a team of followers; the typical habitat of 
the system is, in short, the shop, the office, or the gang 
of laborers.' 

^ It is not meant to imply here that many suggestions cannot be drawn 



28 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [302 

Secondly, the horizon of scientific management may 
be further limited to that one phase of shop or industrial 
life which has to do with the control of men. Ruled out 
entirely are all considerations as to commercial policy — 
that is, programs for buying and selling, or decisions as 
to what goods shall be manufactured. Excluded from 
scientific management, also, is the financial aspect of 
business — that is, that which has to do with the relations 
of a company with its stockholders, the borrowing of 
funds, and the keeping of accounts. To one side, more- 
over, lie problems connected with the technique of pro- 
duction ; that is, scientific management does not primarily 
concern itself with those aspects of chemistry, physics, 
and mechanical engineering, which determine the pro- 
cesses of manufacture.' 

Finally, may we venture once again to narrow the 
scope of our subject, and conclude that scientific man- 
agement's position is that of but one of the many move- 
ments which aim to improve the relations of management 
and men. Scientific management we regard as an histor- 

from scientific management for application by the individual— for in- 
stance in medical work or in housekeeping. Our topic, however, is 
historical scientific management. And in the past the origin and 
important development of scientific management has been in the indus- 
trial field. For the promise of important influence in other fields, see 
Christine Frederick, The New Housekeeping, and Morris L. Cooke's 
report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 
on Academic and Industrial Efficiency (bulletin number five) . Such 
movements, however, are essentially an extension of scientific manage- 
ment, and beyond the special scope of this monograph. Cooke's report 
is discussed, infra, ch. iv, sec. 5. 

^ Scientific management must, of course, take all these other fields 
into consideration ; and often marked improvement is attained in them 
because of the method of scientific management. The handling of men, 
however, is the system's first consideration, and its main reason for 
existence. 



303] MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 29 

ical entity, something concrete, whose presence can be 
detected and verified by the observation of distinctive 
accompanying features. In the last analysis, ''scientific 
management" is not a great deal more comprehensive 
than ''the Taylor system." 

Thus, neither all science, nor all management, nor all 
management that is scientific, forms the theme of this 
treatise. But that the special movement with which the 
monograph deals is worthy of consideration, we trust 
that no one who reads the following pages will gainsay. 



CHAPTER II 

Early Attempts at a Solution of the 
Wages Problem 

The present chapter is introduced mainly to prepare 
the way for a discussion of the genesis of scientific man- 
agement in Chapter III. 

The angle from which the genesis of scientific manage- 
ment will be viewed in these two chapters will be some- 
what different from the rather personal viewpoint which 
prevailed in the earlier sketch of Frederick W. Taylor. 
Not only will the discussion of origins be much fuller 
here; but also, to our narration of what went on in 
Taylor's life, there will be added a portrayal of some 
things which were occurring in a larger field. This larger 
field was the membership of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers. Taylor, as well as all the other 
individuals who have been especially prominent in the 
scientific-management movement, have been members of 
this society. It was in papers read before its meetings 
that all the important contributions to the theory of sci- 
entific management were made. It will be our policy, 
in short, in discussing the genesis of the system, to treat 
its origin as the culmination of a succession of efforts on 
the part of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 
to solve a certain problem. This method of dealing 
with the matter does not in the least detract from the 
credit due to Taylor ; for, as we shall see, it was the con- 
tribution of Taylor which did most to shape the attitude 
taken by the society. 

30 [304 



305] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 31 

I. THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS 

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers was 
organized in 1880, and in 1884 adopted a set of rules in 
which it was declared that the object of the society was 
"to promote the Arts and Sciences connected with 
Engineering and Mechanical Construction." The first 
thing, therefore, which must be explained in accounting 
for the genesis of scientific managem.ent from within the 
membership of this body is why a society founded to 
promote engineering technique should have launched 
out into a consideration of problems of management. 
The reasons for this enlargement of function, and the 
proposal that it be attempted, are contained in a paper 
read before the society in 1886 by Henry R. Towne, and 
entitled, ''The Engineer as an Economist."^ The sub- 
stance of the argument is as follows : The final value of 
the work of a mechanical engineer depends on whether 
or not the employer makes money out of his business ; 
but the making of money depends not only on seeing 
that the technical matters connected with manufacture 
are intelligently looked after. To a surprisingly large 
extent, works-management and the methods of dealing 
with employees react on costs. A diagram is introduced 
to show how, in a certain establishment, a special system 
of piece and contract work resulted in a striking reduc- 
tion of labor cost. In this lucrative field, who can 
accomplish more than one strong man charged with the 
management of the shop as a whole? But the person 
exercising this authority must be a man of engineering 
training and practical experience, not a clerk or account- 
ant only. Therefore the engineer should make a study 
of the problems of management in order that he may be 

* Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 
vol. vii. 



32 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [306 

qualified to serve in this new capacity. Mr. Towne con- 
cludes by proposing that the society undertake to gather, 
by means of papers presented before its meetings, a stock 
of information with regard to the little understood art of 
management. Thus was suggested the policy which the 
society soon began to practice, and which has been fol- 
lowed with notable success to the present day. 

2. THE WAGES PROBLEM 

When the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 
undertook to promote the art of management, they were 
not interested equally in all of management's different 
aspects. The problem which they considered almost 
exclusively, and the only one which will be discussed in 
this history of scientific management, may be called the 
wages problem. In order to understand in just what 
form this problem appeared to the engineers, it will be 
advisable to look at the operation of the main wage 
systems. 

Wages are generally paid on the basis of one of two 
criteria. The one criterion is the amount of time put at 
the employer's disposal by the employee, the other the 
amount of work which the employee performs. The 
wages system which depends altogether on the former 
mode of reckoning is called the day-work plan ; the 
system which depends altogether on the latter mode is 
called the piece-work plan. 

Now engineers, and all other men of experience, hope 
for something better than the day-work plan ; for they 
find that a man working under it does not produce up to 
his full capacity : he too often feels that an increase of ef- 
fort benefits only the employer. David F. Schloss, who has 
made a thorough study of English factories, writes :' '' I 

^Methods of Industrial Remuneration, p. 53. 



307] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 33 

have, in instances too numerous to mention, found that 
the excess of work obtained by putting men on piece- 
wage has been from 30 to 50 per cent." Frederick A. 
Halsey declares ^ that under the day-work plan '' matters 
naturally settle down to an easy-going pace, in which 
the workmen have little interest in their work, and the 
employer pays extravagantly for his product." Frederick 
W. Taylor observes ^ that 

The men are paid according to the position which they fill, 
and not according: to their individual character, energy, skill, 
and reliability. The effect of this system is distinctly demor- 
alizing and leveling ; even the ambitious men soon conclude 
that since there is no profit to them in working hard, the best 
thing for them to do is to work just as little as they can and 
still keep their position. And under these conditions the in- 
variable tendency is to drag them all down even below the 
level of the medium. ^' 

Hope of promotion and fear of discharge indeed keep 
the men at work, but the efficiency induced by holding 
these possibilities before their eyes ordinarily falls far 
short of reaching the manufacturer's ideal. 

Now these failings of the day-work system are obvious 
to all, and so, from time immemorial, employers have 
introduced wherever possible the second great system 
of wage payment, that of piece-work. Under this sys- 
tem the plan of payment according to the amount of 
time employed is abandoned. The basis becomes the 
workman's efficiency as measured by his output. The 
piece-work system at first glance seems ideal; but that 
there are certain obstacles which prevent its perfect 

^"The Premium Plan of Paying for Labor," in Transactions of the 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, vol. xii, p. 755. 
^" A Piece-Rate System," in Transactions, vol. xvi, p. 861. 



34 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [308 

application and largely destroy its effectiveness, the fol- 
lowing discussion will show. 

It is a matter of general experience that an employer 
ordinarily starts a piece-work system as follows : He 
estimates how long it should take a skillful workman to 
perform each job. Then, having in mind a fair hourly 
rate, he so figures the price per piece that the said skill- 
ful employee will just about earn the proper wage, pro- 
vided he applies himself with industry. 

Now the object of the piece-work system is to encour- 
age each man to do his best. Suppose, therefore, that 
an ambitious workman succeeds in greatly increasing 
the volume of his output. He earns, let us say, 30 per 
cent more than his fellows. All goes well for a while. 
But one day an officer of the company looks over the 
pay roll, and calls the foreman's attention to the fact 
that some of the men are receiving wages 30 per cent 
too high. A mistake has been made, they conclude, and 
the rate is promptly cut. 

This cutting of rates has occurred so frequently and 
invariably in factory life^ that workmen have learned 
what to expect. If they increase their output, in the 
hope of earning higher wages, sooner or later the rates 
will be cut; and the men will find themselves working 
much harder, but for no greater pay, than before. So 
labor unions frequently limit the earnings of their mem- 
bers — and thus the output — imposing a heavy fine upon 
those who transgress; and workmen sometimes go to 
considerable trouble to work slowly while appearing to 

* As an illustration of the extremes to which rate-cutting is carried, 
we may cite Secretary Redfield's mention of an employer who boasted 
that he had cut the piece-rate five times on a single job. Tuck School 
Conference on Scientific Management, Addresses and Discussions, p. 

355. 



309] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 3- 

work fast. The piece-work system is therefore con- 
demned by many as having fallen short of accomplishing 
the purpose for which it was created. It does not make 
it to the interest of the workmen to increase their 
output.^ 

^ Rate-cutting, though often mean and unfair, is usually unavoidable 
in connection with the straight piece-work system. The employer who 
is setting a price for a new kind of work almost invariably overestimates 
the time which it will take to perform it. He has too many things to 
occupy his attention to be able to work out the cleverest procedure 
which may be employed in the performance of the task. When the job 
is first being tried out, the experimenter's halting movements little sug- 
gest the extreme rapidity which the dexterous workman may ultimately 
acquire. A rate is set. An energetic worker starts upon the job and 
in each passing year discovers new tricks of the trade, new methods of 
enlarging the output. If the piece-rate remained constant, wages would 
rise to unusual levels — ten dollars a day, possibly, in some cases. Now 
the employee undoubtedly deserves a reward for improving the methods 
of his work, but it is questionable whether he is entitled to as great a 
return as an unreduced piece-rate would yield him. The improvements 
are probably simple ones that almost anyone could devise, and which a 
good man ought to be expected to make, given the opportunity. Just 
as the manufacturer expects to see the savings due to his own improve- 
ments ultimately reflected in reduced prices to the purchasing public, 
so the piece-worker has no inalienable right to enjoy perpetually a given 
rate. Especially would the employer in the above illustration be justi- 
fied in cutting the rate upon giving the job to a new man. For why 
should a workman earn unheard-of wages who has done nothing ex- 
cept adopt methods invented by his predecessor or neighbor? Finally, 
even the most generous-hearted employer would be unable to pay high 
rates for work when his less conscientious competitors are figuring their 
selling prices on a lower basis. Thus it is seen that the ordinary 
methods of introducing piece-work necessarily involve the continuous 
repetition of a cycle, of which the first stage is the establishment of 
imperfect rates; the second, the earning of unusual wages; and the 
third the cutting of the rates. The corollary of these tactics on the 
part of the management is naturally an effort on the part of the men to 
limit output. In the struggle, the management usually makes headway 
against the men; but it is generally only after years of slow progress 
that the rates come to approximate a reasonable return on the basis of 
thoroughly efficient work. 



36 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [310 

3. PROFIT SHARING 

We can now appreciate the problem before the me- 
chanical engineers. Whether the day-work or the piece- 
work plans were in use, they felt that very serious 
economic losses resulted. Accordingly, the attention of 
many men was turned towards finding a solution of the 
difficulty, and a series of movements was begun of which 
the most conspicuous was to be that of scientific man- 
agement. The American Society of Mechanical Engi- 
neers were not, however, the first in the field; and as, in 
inventing their own plans of reform, they not unnaturally 
started out where others had left off, it will be necessary 
to explain what ideas were already current. 

In the latter half of the eighties there was just one 
movement which was winning adherents and attracting 
the attention of the society, and that was a movement 
towards profit sharing. 

A philosophy might be constructed for profit sharing 
as follows : When a man works for himself, there is no 
labor problem; for, when his profits are his ow^n, there is 
every inducement for him to work to the limit of his 
comfort. But when men are gathered together in indus- 
trial groups, and all the profits derived from their labor 
go to the owner of the plant, the workman is no longer 
concerned as to the success of the enterprise. Why 
should he not shirk when there is a chance? Why 
should he care if he spoils material or interferes with the 
smooth running of the factory? Now since it was this 
diverting of profits from the men to the absentee owner 
that gave rise to the labor problem, profit sharing, by 
reversing the process, would seem to strike at the very 
root of the evil. If profits are divided among all, all will 
be led to cooperate, and all will prosper. 

This general philosophy of profit sharing must be 



31 1 ] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 2,7 

supplemented, however, by a statement or two with re- 
gard to the principles upon which it is usually put into 
practice. Inasmuch as it is the employer who must take 
the initiative in introducing profit sharing, the employer 
takes care that there be no diminution in his own pre- 
vious earnings. It is therefore stipulated that, unless 
profits are larger than they have been in the past, there 
will be no profit sharing. And if profits are larger, what 
is to be shared is not the total amount of profits, but the 
gat7t over what they have been in the past. It is possi- 
ble that this entire gain will be turned over to the 
employees, but not at all likely. The employer usually 
wants to get some advantage out of the plan himself, 
and so the common arrangement provides that only a 
certain share of the gain is to go to the employees, and 
the rest is to be retained by the establishment. The in- 
come of the employee derived from profit sharing is, of 
course, a reward entirely above and independent of his 
regular wages or salary. 

The first systematic practice of profit sharing is said 
to have been started in 1842 by M. Leclaire, a house- 
painter and decorator, of Paris.' It was taken up shortly 
afterwards by a number of other French and German 
establishments, and as the years have gone by has been 
adopted rather extensively — first in France, and then more 
recently in England. Of interest for our purpose is the 
fact that the idea was received in the United States so 
favorably during the eighties, that in 1889 Mr. Oilman 
was able to record the names of thirty-four American 
establishments which had adopted it in some form ; so 
that in the number of its establishments the United States 
in that year ranked second only to France.^ As all but 

^Gilman, Profit Sharing, p. 66. 

■^ In the following decade all but eleven of these thirty-four establish- 



38 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [312 

three of these introductions had been made since the 
beginning of the decade, it may be seen that profit shar- 
ing was indeed in the atmosphere at this period. It is 
not surprising therefore that the first proposals for a 
solution of the wages problem made before the American 
Society of Mechanical Engineers were along profit-sharing 
lines, and that long afterwards the idea was still being 
discussed in the papers read before the society/ 

4. HENRY R. TOWNE's " GAIN-SHARING " 

The first paper presented before the American Society 
of Mechanical Engineers in which a serious attempt was 
made to grapple with the wages problem was read in 
1889 by President Henry R. Towne, under the title of 
** Gain-Sharing."'' Mr. Towne had made a study of 

ments dropped the profit-sharing system, so that though twelve new 
establishments had introduced it, the total number in 1899 was but 
twenty-three. Gilman, A Dividend to Labor, p. 346. 

^ For further information with regard to profit sharing see (for critical 
comment) Schloss, Methods of Industrial Remuneration, pp. 254-309; 
and (for a defense) Gilman, Profit Sharing, 1889, and A Dividend to 
Labor, 1899. 

■^ Transactions, vol. x. After Mr. Towne's earlier proposal that the 
society consider problems of management, Mr. W. E. Partridge had 
made a start in this direction in a paper read in November, 1886, en- 
titled "Capital's Need for High-Priced Labor " {Transactions, \o\. viii.). 
Mr. Partridge argues that the prevailing theory in regard to wages, 
which holds that "the less the price paid for labor, the less will the 
product cost," is wrong. On the contrary, the general problem of the 
employer is "to increase the earning powers of his men from year to 
year, and to do it in such a way that the men not only earn more, but 
are more profitable to him." In June, 1887, William Kent presented 
a short paper entitled " A Problem in Profit Sharing" {Transactions, 
vol. viii.), in which he suggested the very plan later developed in 
Towne's " Gain-Sharing." But Mr. Kent had not worked out any de- 
tails, and declared that he was not aware that the plan which he sug- 
gested had ever been tried. Mr. Towne, on the other hand, was able 
to state at the time Kent's paper was read that, as it had happened, he 



313] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 39 

profit sharing as practiced in Europe and America, and 
had come to the conclusion that conditions in industry- 
were such, that some plan by which the self-interest of 
the workman would be identified with the success of his 
employer must be adopted. But in the prevaiHng types of 
profit sharing Mr. Towne saw the following great de- 
fects : The workmen benefit by, or suffer loss from, fluc- 
tuations in profits for which they themselves are not in 
the least responsible. Changes in the prices of raw ma- 
terials or finished product, varying skill on the part of 
the management as relates to the larger matters of equip- 
ment and organization, varying efficiency on the part of 
the mercantile staff in purchasing supplies or finding a 
market for the output — these are some of the things 
which, under orthodox profit sharing, unduly augment 
or unfairly curtail the dividends of the workmen. 

So Mr. Towne proposed a new type of profit sharing. 
His plan was to isolate in the bookkeeping those com- 
ponents of cost which the laborer has it in his power to 
influence, and base the division of profits upon the 
amount of reduction in these costs. From year to year 
a record was to be kept of the total wages paid to labor ; 
of the amount of raw material used^ (so as to check 
waste); of the cost of incidental supplies (such as oil, 
waste, tools, and implements); of the cost of power, light, 
and water ; of the cost of renewals and repairs of plant ; 
and of the cost of superintendence, clerk hire, etc. If, 
at the end of the year, the cost of these items per unit 

had put Kent's precise plan into operation on January i, preceding. 
Thus Towne's " Gain-Sharing" paper deals with achievements older 
than Kent's suggestions. 

^ To determine the value of raw material, the amount used was multi- 
plied by an arbitrary fixed price, thus eliminating the effect of price 
fluctuations. 



40 SCIENTIFIC MAN A CEMENT [314 

of product was found to be less than it had been when 
the plan was put into effect, it was to be assumed that 
the workmen had effected this saving ; and this sum, this 
gain, was to be shared with them.' 

An erroneous picture of gain-sharing would, however, 
be conveyed if we did not mention two important modify- 
ing features. The gain-sharing plan was drawn up in the 
form of a '' contract," which the employer obligated him- 
self to leave unaltered until the date set for termination, 
the period of duration being never less than one year, 
and preferably lasting from three to five years. The 
original costs, with which later costs were to be com- 
pared in order to determine the gain, were referred to in 
these contracts as " contract prices." The first point to be 
noted is that the contract prices were not always the 
actual original costs as determined by the books. Of 
the contracts which Mr. Towne presents as examples, he 
says that "in a majority of cases the contract prices were 
fixed at rates which were a reduction of from ten to 
twenty per cent, and in one case of thirty per cent from 
previous costs." He justifies this action on the ground 
that there was good reason to beheve that increased 
effort would result in a very considerable reduction in 
costs. 

A second thing to be considered is that the gain- 
sharing was not necessarily permanent. At the close of 
the contract period, "if during the previous term the 
cost of product has been considerably reduced, he [the 
employer] will presumably (although this is not always 
the wisest course) proportionately reduce the contract 

' Mr. Towne divided the gain on the basis of one-half to the opera- 
tives. Of the 50 per cent going to the operatives, he recommends 
giving 10 or 15 per cent to the foreman, and dividing the remaining 
40 or 35 per cent among the subordinates in proportion to the amount 
of their annual wages. 



315] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 41 

prices." Mr. Towne recommends that (where the pre- 
vious cost of product is well known) the contract period 
be made a long one, so that the men may not limit their 
exertion because of the prospect of a reduction of the 
contract prices in the near future. Under the long con- 
tract period, " the employee can afford, for the sake of 
present gain, to disregard this question as one only 
affecting a somewhat remote future, and to use his best 
efforts and intelligence to effect a reduction in the cost 
of product." Then, when the opportunity for a revision 
of prices occurs, the employer will be able "to make a 
larger reduction than he would probably attain in the 
same time under the plan of frequent revisions, and can 
also then afford to act miore liberally toward the em- 
ployees in the matter." 

The reader of Mr. Towne's paper is easily convinced 
that in the long run the gain-sharing plan really left 
everything in the hands of the employer, and that on his 
discretion and talent for dealing tactfully and consider- 
ately with the men it had to depend almost entirely for 
either success or justification.^ 

5. FREDERICK A. HALSEY's "PREMIUM PLAN " 

The next important attempt to present a solution of 
the wages problem before the American Society of Me- 
chanical Engineers occurred in 1891, when Frederick A. 

^The gain-sharing plan was invented by Mr. Towne in 1886, put into 
operation in the works of the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company 
in January, 1887, and by May, 1889, some 300 were employed under the 
system. Mr. Towne was in i88g enthusiastic over its success. The 
employees had cheerfully accepted the plan, and (in the instance w^hich 
Mr. Towne mentions) had drawn dividends equal to about 4 or 5 per 
cent of their yearly earnings. The Yale & Towne gain-sharing sys- 
tem was, like most other American profit-sharing enterprises, aband- 
oned in the nineties (Oilman, A Dividend to Labor, p. 351). For the 
introduction of scientific management in this plant, see infra, ch. v., 
sec. 3. 



42 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [316 

Halsey read a paper entitled " The Premium Plan of 
Paying for Labor." ^ 

The Halsey premium plan is, in effect, an adaptation 
of piece-work. Mr. Halsey tells us that he has no use 
for day-work, because of the easy-going pace and lack 
of interest which accompany it. At the same time he 
fails to see much good in profit sharing: In the first 
place profit sharing is patronage, in that profits may 
arise from better management or many other causes 
other than the merits of the workmen. Secondly, it is 
demoralizing; the surplus profits, due to the increased 
activity of the more energetic, are apportioned pro rata 
among all — including the lazy; this spectacle dampens 
the ardor of even the most enterprising workmen. 
Thirdly, profit sharing is ineffective, in that rewards six 
months or a year ahead are too remote. Fourthly, it is 
not fair for workmen to share profits, for they do not 
share losses. And finally, the workmen have no means 
of knowing whether the agreement is carried out hon- 
estly by the management. 

Halsey's main attack, however, is upon the iniquity of 
the orthodox piece-work system. In terse but lucid 
phrases he expresses the fundamental difficulty which we 
have already discussed. To quote : As soon as a piece- 
worker increases his output so that he earns beyond 
what the employer had expected, the latter cuts the 
rate, which 

is in appearance and in fact an announcement to the workman 
that his earnings will not be allowed to exceed a certain 
amount, and that should he push them above that amount he 
will be met with another cut . . . matters gradually settle 
down as before to an easy-going- pace . . . Their earnings 

' Transactions, vol. xii. 



317] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 43 

are somewhat more and the cost of the work is somewhat less 
than under the day's-work plan, but there is no more spirit of 
progress than under the older method. The employer is 
constantly on the lookout for a chance to cut the piece prices, 
that being- his only method of reducing cost ; and the men are 
constantly on the lookout to defeat the employer's well 
understood plan. 

Thus Mr. Halsey, speaking from wide experience, holds 
that the piece-work system " seldom works smoothly, 
and never produces the results which it should." The 
piece-work system, like day-work and profit sharing, is 
incapable of infusing a spirit of enterprise into the 
workmen.' 

Halsey's constructive plan is a scheme by which he 
proposes to so alter the piece-work system that it will 
never be necessary under any circumstances to cut the 
rates. His method consists in first determining the time 
which the men have been taking to do their work, and 
then announcing that if they will finish it quicker, they 
will be given, in addition to their old day rate, a new 
premium rate of so much an hour for the time saved. 
This premium rate is always less than the day rate. 

In order to arrive at the fundamental distinction be- 
tween the premium plan and the piece-work plan, we will 
first note what would happen if the premium rate were 
made as great as the day rate (instead of always being 

^ Mr. Halsey discusses the piece-work system before the profit-sharing 
plan, and indeed discards it along with the rest. But from the com- 
parative and analytical point of view, the premium plan is as we shall 
see more nearly piece-work than anything else. Though Halsey speaks 
pointedly of the faults of piece-work, its principle, the appeal to indi- 
vidual self-interest, he makes the corner-stone of his own system. So 
we have discussed the various plans out of order, that we might dispose 
first of those systems which Halsey rejects altogether, and treat last the 
one from which his own system is adapted. 



44 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [318 

less). That the premium system would in that case be 
identical with straight piece-work, the following illustra- 
tion will show. Assume that a man, who has been 
working under the day-work system at 30c. an hour, 
turning out one job every hour, is put under the pre- 
mium system. Suppose that the man is told that he will 
be paid his old rate of 30c. an hour for the time which 
he works, and also (if he finishes in less than an hour) 
be paid at the same rate for the rest of the hour which 
he does not work. This would be equivalent to piece- 
work, the said employee being always assured of an 
hour's pay whether the work takes him a full hour or 
only twenty minutes. If he finishes in twenty minutes, 
he would be credited with twenty minutes of work and 
forty minutes of time saved, one hour in all. The next 
twenty minutes he could earn another hour's pay, and so 
forth. The system would be in effect a piece-work 
mechanism, the rate per piece being here 30c. 

But the premium rate, instead of being as high as the 
day rate, is usually about one-third of the same ; and this 
fact makes the premium system different from straight 
piece-work. In the following tables, the day rate is 
fixed at 30c. and the premium rate at loc. Note that 
the rate of increase in total earnings is low as compared 
with the rate of increase in output. Notice especially the 
correspondence of the total earnings with the figures in 
the lower column, which are inserted in order to verify 
an interpretation of the premium system in terms of piece- 
prices. 



319] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 45 

The Premium Plan 



Output 










Total 


(lo-hour day) 


Time saved 


Premium 




Day rate 


earnings 


10 pieces 


hrs. 


$0.00 


+ 


$3.00 


= $3.00 


15 " 


5 '' 


0.50 


+ 


3.00 


= 3.50 


20 


10 " 


1. 00 


H-- 


3.00 


4.00 


25 " 


15 " 


1.50 


+ 


3-00 


= 4.50 


30 '' 


20 " 


2.00 


+ 


3.00 


= 5.00 



Hypothetical Plan 

30 cents for first ten pieces, 10 cents thereafter 

10 pieces $3.00 

15 '' 3.50 

20 " 4.00 

25 " 4.50 

30 *' 5-00 

Conclusions may now be reached regarding the real 
nature of the premium system. The plan first guarantees 
to each worker a full day rate, and then, having allotted 
to him a quantity of work which under the day-work 
system it would take him a day to perform, it offers to 
pay him for whatever he produces above that minimum 
a premium [or piece-rate] equal to one-third'' of the day- 
work cost. It is the one-third feature which is the unique 
and essential point in the scheme; "Making the hourly 
premium less than the hourly wages is the foundation 
stone on which rest all the merits of the system . . ." 
(Halsey.) 

^One-third is the most typical figure. Mr. Halsej^ says, however, 
that nothing but good sense can decide just how high the rate should be 
in any given case. The proper rate varies with the nature of the work. 
Where an increase in production is accompanied by a proportionate in- 
crease in muscular exertion, a liberal premium is required. Where the 
only requirement for speeding-up is an increased attention to speeds and 
feeds of machines, combined with an increase in manual dexterity and 
the avoidance of lost time, the premium may be more moderate. In 
some cases ten cents an hour would not be at all enough. Of other 
cases, Mr. Halsey says that he has "produced excellent results with 
premiums as low as three cents an hour." 



46 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [320 

As regards the merits of the Halsey plan, one advan- 
tage claimed for it is a simplification of rate-setting. 
Under the ordinary piece-work system this is a rather 
delicate matter. A foreman who undertakes to set a 
piece-price for work as yet done only by the day must 
first go to the trouble of estimating how long it should 
take under the new system, the idea being, of course, to 
reduce the time. Under the Halsey system, on the con- 
trary, " the attempt to determine the possible output is 
abandoned. Present output is taken as the basis." ^ 
This means that, when the premium system is intro- 
duced, the men are allowed for performing the work 
just the length of time which the records show they 
have been taking in the past. Now they may double or 
treble the output; but because some two-thirds of the 
gain goes to the employer and only one-third is retained 
by the men, the gain of the latter is in no instance ex- 
cessive. The security of the management consists in the 
fact that they gather a substantial portion of the gain — 
not in their care in ascertaining exactly how speedily the 
work can be done. Hence much record-keeping and 
calculation is avoided. The time limits come ready- 
made to the hands of the bosses. Both rate-setting and 
rate-cutting are automatic. 

Among the other advantages of the premium plan is 
the fact that every workman is guaranteed a day rate, no 
matter what the output. Also, the instant that an em- 
ployee turns out even slightly more than under the day- 
work plan, that moment his premium begins to accumu- 
late. These arrangements eliminate a certain friction 
which ordinarily accompanies piece-work; it is no longer 
necessary to force up the speed suddenly to the point 
where piece -\vork is a paying proposition. 

^ Transactions, vol. xvi., p. 886. 



32 1 ] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 47 

But the chief reason for the development of the pre- 
mium plan was neither to save the foreman trouble nor 
to soften a workman's first contact with the piece-work 
system. The . great dif^culty attached to straight piece- 
work, according to Halsey, is the fact that foremen do 
not know, and can not know, in how short a time the 
work should be done. Mistakes in rate-setting are in- 
evitable. The premium system, which allows the work- 
man's pay to fluctuate only one-third as much as his 
output, strikes at the root of this difficulty. In fact, the 
loss resulting from a mistake in setting a time limit is 
so much lessened that the management makes it a prin- 
ciple never to make a reduction. Thus a tradition is 
built up that rates once established are permanent, and 
the men have no motive for restricting output. 

Speculation as to an employer's probable profits under 
the premium plan, as compared with those under ordi- 
nary piece-work, should take the following points into 
consideration. Ordinary piece-work — though it professes 
to give a workman the entire value of his increased effort 
— may more properly be set down as a system which 
tends to transfer to the management the entire gain due 
to the workman's improvements, this being accomplished 
by rate-cutting. The premium plan, on the contrary, 
can not lay claim to yielding the management more than 
two-thirds of the profits. However, as the straight 
piece-work system tends to prevent improvements from 
being made, while the premium plan encourages the 
development of the possibilities of production, the latter 
is often in reality the more profitable of the two. That 
is, a tribute of two-thirds levied on a booming produc- 
tion may be greater than a tribute of all levied on the 
work of laggards. 



48 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [322 

The premium plan ^ was first applied to a shop, three 
years before the reading of Halsey's paper, by William 
Kent in the works of the Springer Torsion Balance 
Company.^ By 1891 the system had been tried with 
success in three establishments, and since that time has 

^ This plan was Mr. Halsey's own invention. Frederick W. Taylor, 
first in 1895 and again in his classic paper on "Shop Management" 
(1903), has characterized it as a modification of the Towne gain-sharing 
system. This position, it seems to us, is hardly well taken. Not only 
did Halsey explain at the start that his idea v/as clearly formulated be- 
fore the publication of Towne' s paper, and was in no way suggested by 
the latter's system {Transactions, vol. xii., p. 780); but also, a compar- 
ison of the two plans shows that they are logically different. That of 
Towne calls for group-action; that of Halsey is an appeal to individual 
self-interest. The former would from time to time reduce the gain that 
falls to the lot of the men; while the latter insists that his very purpose 
is to avoid the necessity of cutting rates. 

In only one respect is there a parallelism. Both propose to eliminate 
the antagonism between management and men by dividing the gain 
arising out of increased productivity. But even here the resemblance 
is not complete. Towne proposes to take a share of the profits that 
would otherwise go to the management and give it to the men (pro- 
vided extra profits are earned through the men's increased efforts); 
while Halsey proposes to obviate rate-cutting by taking profits which 
the piece-work plan promises the men, and turning the same over to 
the management. The two systems are alike only in that they are both 
compromises. 

The real reason why they seemed from Taylor's standpoint to be re- 
lated is this, that neither of them tried to determine scientifically the 
exact amount of work which it is possible for men to turn out. Both 
systems, especially Halsey's, represented rather an evasion of this obli- 
gation. Instead of trying to take the matter more firmly in hand, they 
represented a loosening of the grasp, a despair as to the possibiHty of fix- 
ing rates accurately, and a resort to compromise that will minimize evils. 
But this similarity proves nothing as to the derivation of one system 
from the other; and to lay stress on the shadowy resemblance to the 
neglect of the marked differences is hardly just to Halsey nor a reason- 
able interpretation of the facts. 

^ Transactions, vol. xii., p. 768. 



323] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 49 

found increasing favor. By 1902^ it was known to be in 
use in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, 
Germany, Italy, and Belgium ; while interest in it, at least, 
had been shown in Sweden and Austria. But it had at- 
tracted more intelligent and serious attention in Great 
Britain than in the United States or elsewhere. 

As to the gains actually realized under the premium 
plan, the following figures, presented by Mr. Halsey 
some eleven years after the reading of his paper, tell 
their own story.* First, in a case where the manufacture 
of thirty-five large machines under the old system was 
followed at a later date by the manufacture of twenty 
duplicates under the premium system, a comparison of 
figures showed that the time on the second lot had been 
reduced 43 per cent. This figure is conceded to be only 
approximately a measure of the worth of the new system, 
as conflicting causes operated both to facilitate and 
hinder the work on the second contract as compared 
with that on the first. A second exhibit by the same 
company, not open to these objections, though unfor- 
tunately much smaller, showed an average reduction in 
time of 41 per cent. In this second instance the parts 
had been made over and over again, and both workmen 
and foremen had been originally positive that under the 
old system the time was down to the minimum and that 
it was useless to apply the premium plan to them. An- 
other exhibit of considerable magnitude, furnished by 
another company, showed an average reduction in time 
of 39 per cent. The figures for the reduction in wages 
cost for the first and third exhibits were respectively 25 
per cent and 28 per cent, the average increase in wages 

^F. A. Halsey, "The Premium Plan of Paying for Labor," in John 
R. Commons, Trade Unionism and Labor Problems, p. 280. 
^ Ibid., pp. 283-285. 



50 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [324 

paid per workman being respectively 29 per cent and 
23 per cent. Mr. Halsey concludes : 

These gfains are so larg-e as to excite incredulity. Most men 
of experience will not seriously consider a system which de- 
liberately proposes to increase output by 70 per cent ^ while 
reducing- wages costs and increasing- daily wages by 25 per 
cent, and I am satisfied that if the plan did about half as well 
as it really does its growth would be much more rapid than it 
is. Apart from exact figures, which are difficult to get, is 
testimony from many men in many lines of work, which is 
substantially unanimous in saying that the system works in 
the manner described, and this testimony is not a matter of 
g-eography or nationality ... 

6. THE ''rowan plan" 

There is an mgenious modification of the premium 
plan, which was first put into operation in Glasgow. 
When David Rowan & Company, of that city, makers 
of marine engines, and the first British firm to take an 
interest in the premium plan, introduced the same into 
their works, they adopted a modification which, though 
not approved in the United States, has been followed to 
some extent in Great Britain, under the name of the 
Rowan plan. 

It should be remembered that the object Mr. Halsey had 
in mind in inventing his system had been to obviate the 
necessity of rate-cutting through so arranging the piece- 
rates that the workmen could never earn excessive 
wages. The framers of the Rowan plan feared that this 
result would not be realized in all cases. Suppose, for 
instance, that through some unexpected development, a 
man should produce ten times as great an output as 

^ A reduction in time of 41 per cent is equivalent to an increase in 
output of 70 per cent. 



325] SOLUTION OF THE WAGES PROBLEM 51 

formerly. Even after the Halsey plan had given two- 
thirds of the increase to the management, the workman 
would still earn three times more than, or four times as 
much as, he was getting under the day rate. Although 
the multiplication of output by ten would perhaps be 
rather extreme, yet the framers of the Rowan system 
did have a serious apprehension that in some cases work- 
men under the Halsey system might earn wages so ex- 
cessive as to necessitate a cut. 

The Rowan plan therefore provides that after a certain 
amount of time has been allotted to a workman as a 
standard time for the performing of his work, he shall 
for a shortening of that time be rewarded by a raise in 
his day rate, the premium added bearing to the day rate 
the same proportion that the time saved bears to the 
time allotted. Thus if the time allotted is 60 minutes 
and the work is performed in 40 minutes, then the pre- 
mium added to the day rate must amount to the time 
saved (20 minutes) divided by the time allotted (60 
minutes), or one-third. If the workman's day rate is 
30c. an hour, it is now raised to 40c. an hour (30 plus 
one-third of 30); and since he was working for 40 min- 
utes (two-thirds of an hour), his pay for the job is 26^c. 
(two-thirds of 40). 

The following graph shows the real significance of 
this modification : 



52 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [326 

Chart 
Comparing Halsey and Rowan Systems 

Output per day (pieces) 
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 \OQ,^}iaJUjuj 




The Rowan plan thus accomplishes its purpose. The 
proportion of time saved to time allotted must always 
be a fraction less than one, and the rate of premium can 
therefore for no output quite equal the day rate. Thus 
double pay is the limit beyond which wages absolutely 
cannot pass. The seeming inhumanity of the system is 
offset by the fact that, until a man has tripled his output, 
his pay is actually higher than under the Halsey plan. 
It thus combines a high reward for the man who by his 
industry doubles the output, with a positive though 
somewhat elastic stopping of the upward spurt of wages 
in the case of a man who has found a '* soft snap.'' 



CHAPTER III 

The Genesis of the Principles of Scientific Man- 
agement 

The preceding chapter may lay a double claim to having 
prepared the way for the treatment in this of the genesis 
of scientific management. 

In the first place, its description of the faults of the 
ordinary methods of wage payment, and of the efforts of 
Towne and Halsey to introduce worthier systems, has 
yielded a stock of information regarding the labor situa- 
tion, without which, or some similar explanation, we could 
not understand the design in scientific management. 

The other, more important, consequence of the last chap- 
ter's review is the fact that only after such a survey could 
one appreciate the unique character of the new movement. 
It will be this knowledge of the plans of the earlier builders 
which will enable us to decide whether scientific manage- 
ment is to be regarded as the last stone in an edifice long 
in process of construction; or whether it is indeed a growth 
for which there has been no earlier counterpart either in 
Europe or America. That scientific management falls 
rather under the latter classification, that it is a system 
whose methods are more or less different from anything 
that has gone before, will be among the implications of the 
present chapter on the development of its fundamental 
principles. 

327] 53 



54 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [328 

I. THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 

The first systematic presentation of what is properly 
called scientific management occurred in 1895, when Fred- 
, erick W. Taylor read before the American Society of 
[/ Mechanical Engineers a paper entitled "A Piece-Rate Sys- 
tem." ^ Scientific management had in fact beeen invented 
and put into practice some ten or fifteen years before 1895. 
But inasmuch as from those earlier days no full statement 
of the principles has come down to us, we will not try to 
subdivide the system's development into minor periods, but 
will regard as a single epoch the years before 1895, and 
present as the initial philosophy of the system the prin- 
ciples summed up by Taylor in the above-mentioned paper.^ 
An examination of "A Piece-Rate System " shows that 
the great object in establishing scientific management was 
to solve the wages problem. The nature of this problem is 
so well understood that a grasp of Taylor's point of view 
towards it should be conveyed by a mere reference to his 
two main arguments : In the first place, he says that under 
the day-work system the men soon conclude that there is 
no profit to them in working hard; secondly, he extends 
his indictment to piece-work, and charges that under the 
latter the desire of the men to stave off cuts leads to the 
almost equally serious evil of restricted output. Taylor's 
method of attacking the wages problem consisted in an 

^ Transactions, vol. xvi. 

"^ As the first steps toward the development of scientific management 
we're taken about 1880, and some of its most vital features were in 
operation as early as 1883, scientific management goes back to an 
earlier date than either Towne's gain-sharing or Halsey's premium 
plan. For many years, however, few persons knew of Taylor's ac- 
tivities, so that the engineers who listened to his paper of 1895 thought 
of the system therein outlined as the most recent of the three. 
Halsey, for one, was until that time unacquainted with Taylor's main 
ideas, as witness his statements, Transactions, vol. xvi, pp. 884, 886. 



329] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 55 

improvement of piece-work by virtue of which rate-cutting 
was to be eliminated. 

The originahty in Taylor's scheme consisted, however, 
neither in his view of the problem, nor in his singling out 
of rate-cutting as a target for reform. It was when he 
offered his specific proposal as to how rate-cutting might 
be avoided that the construction of his own unique system 
began. Up to the time of the reading of the paper under 
study, the solution of the rate-cutting problem which had 
attracted most attention was that which has been described 
under the name of the premium plan. The inventor of the 
premium plan had claimed that the cure for rate-cutting 
lay in giving to the workman only a fraction of the value 
resulting from his speeding up. Taylor's idea was quite 
different. He argued that if the management merely knew 
how long it should take a man working at his best to com- 
plete a job — that information alone would eliminate the 
necessity of cutting rates. For the management could 
then so fix the rates in the first place that the men would be 
compelled to do a good day's work in order to make reason- 
able wages; and further — since all would have to do their 
best to make fair earnings — so no man could by virtue of 
any effort attain to an excessive income. In short, an 
exact, scientific determination of the maximum speed at 
which work can be done is, according to Taylor, the means 
to be invoked for solving the wages problem. 

Now, it was precisely because Halsey had denied the 
possibility of obtaining such data that that leader among 
engineers had gone to the trouble of inventing his premium 
system. Taylor's proposal, therefore, requires backing up 
in the shape of practical suggestions as to how his records 
may be obtained. This basic proposition Taylor discusses 
under the caption of elementary rate-Hxing, a term which 
has since been displaced by the broader and more sugges- 
tive title, elementary time study. 



56 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [330 

a. Elementary Time Study 
' As compared with the methods usually employed in tim- 
ing workmen, the unique characteristic of elementary time 
study is this, that it involves an analysis of a job as a 
whole into the elementary movements of man and machine, 
which when followed the one by the other accomplish the 
desired end. Thus, if the job be the planing of a piece of 
cast iron, the following analysis might be made: 

Analysis by Elementary Time Study of the Planing of a Surface 
ON A Piece of Cast Iron ^ 

Work done by man Minutes 

Lift piece from floor to planer table 

Level and set work true on table 

Put on stops and bolts 

Remove stops and bolts 

Remove piece to floor 

Clean machine 

Work done by machine 

Rough off cut K in. thick, 4 feet long, 2^/2 ins. wide 

Rough off cut ^ in. thick, 3 feet long, 12 ins. wide, etc 

Finish cut 4 feet long, 2}4 ins. wide 

Finish cut 3 feet long, 12 ins. wide, etc. 

Total 

Add per cent for unavoidable delays 

T"^ More fully stated, the first step in elementary time study 
is to divide a task into its simple elements; the second is 
to jot down opposite each element the number of seconds 
or minutes which, according to a stop watch, it takes a 
workman to perform it; the third is to add these unit 
times together to obtain a total time; and the fourth is to 
multiply this sum by a factor which allows for rest and 
other necessary delays. Its essence is thus the obtaining 
of a standard time, not through an unanalytical observa- 

1 Taken with slight alterations from "A Piece-Rate System," 
Transactions, vol. xvi, p. 871. 



33 1 ] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 57 

tion of the job as a whole, but rather through adding 
together the unit times required for the individual acts 
whose aggregate constitutes the job. 

But the question arises, Why this complicated and costly 
analysis? Wherein does Taylor attain results superior to 
those which w^ould have been realized through the simpler 
method of timing jobs as a whole? 

It should first be noted that elementary time study, far 
from being as tedious and expensive as it at first glance 
appears, is in reality rather simple. The reason for this 
simplicity arises from the fact that the elements into which 
each job may be split up are comparable with similar ele- 
ments which enter into other jobs. Thus, to draw an 
analogy, the jobs in any one trade might be likened to the 
chemical compounds. Both are countless in their number 
and confusing in their complexity. But just as the chemist 
can reduce by analysis all of his innumerable compounds 
to some seventy interchangeable elements, so also the time- 
study man, on splitting up his thousands of factory jobs 
into their component elements, finds that he has reduced 
them all to a comparatively small number of fundamental 
operations. 

To be specific, a glance at the time-study analysis printed 
above makes it evident that all of the operations classified 
as " work done by man " must appear over and over again 
in hundreds of different jobs. Also, although any one of 
those operations classified as " work done by machine " 
varies in difficulty for different jobs according to whether 
their specifications call for the cutting away of a larger 
or smaller amount of metal, nevertheless each of these 
operations belongs to a group among which the variations 
in time required may be calculated by the use of mathe- 
matical formulas. 

The effect of these facts upon the mechanism of ele- 



58 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [332 

mentary time study is this : they make it possible to keep 
on file in the office, records showing the number of min- 
utes or seconds required for the performance of each work 
element entering into the jobs in the shop; then when a 
new job is to be introduced, it is only necessary to divide 
it into its elements, copy from the records the time re- 
quired to perform each operation, add these unit times 
together, and finally multiply by the usual factor of safety, 
or margin for rest and delays. Gantt states that during a 
certain month ninety-two per cent of the new tasks imposed 
in one shop were set solely from data in the office, without 
the rate-setter entering the shop at all. Indeed, argue the 
advocates of scientific management, is not this system much 
more simple than the old way, according to which the 
foreman was accustomed to gather records from a number 
of similar, yet non-identical jobs, and then guess as best 
he could as to how long the new job should take? 

The above explanation answers in part the question as 
to the why and wherefore of elementary time study — in that 
it indicates that the system is simpler in operation than the 
methods formerly used. As closely following from this 
simplicity of operation should be mentioned a second ad- 
vantage, one which is realized mainly in connection with 
large non-repetitive work. According to the old system, 
which based piece-rates upon past records covering jobs 
as a whole, it would be practically impossible to put special 
work on a piece-work basis, the probability being that the 
rate so estimated would be wide of the mark. Elementary 
time study, by offering an easy method for the accurate 
fixing of a rate before the job has been begun, permits the 
extension of the piece-rate system to non-repetitive work. 

The main reason, however, for the invention of elemen- 
tary time study was not the simplification of rate-setting, 
nor yet the extension of the piece-work plan to non- 



333] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 59 

repetitive work. The chief object of its creation was to 
secure accuracy of results. Under the old plan of meas- 
uring a complicated task as one unit, the workman who 
desired to deceive, or the workman who was ignorant or 
unskilful, was likely to throw in a number of extra opera- 
tions, thus leading to a padding of the time. Indeed, it 
was this padding of the time upon the occasion of the 
original rate-setting that caused the subsequent rate-cutting, 
and hence all the trouble. Taylor claims that the mechan- 1 
ism of elementary time study, in counting every operation 
in the work, entirely eliminates the possibility of padding. 
At the same time, the system also enables the time-study 
man to judge whether his subject is performing the actu- 
ally necessary operations at a standard speed. For the 
elements that enter into the job are in most cases similar 
to elements with which the expert has become familiar in 
studying other jobs. Thus he comes to the work with 
fairly definite ideas as to how long every operation should 
take, and if the time-study man and the workman pit their 
wits against one another, the advantage is with the for- 
mer. The system, therefore, assures the honesty of the 
workman observed. It eliminates the uncertainty creeping 
into lump measurements as to whether it is the job that is 
being timed or merely a series of " fake " or clumsy 
motions. As a result, it provides unimpeachable data, 
which may be used as a basis for fixing piece-rates — piece- 
rates which it will never be necessary to cut. In a word, 
elementary time study, according to the advocates of scien- 
tific management, is the key to the solution of the wages 
problem. 

b. The Differential Rate 

The determination by elementary time study of the max- 
imum speed at which work can be done is not, however, 



6o SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [334 

a complete solution of the wages problem. The manage- 
ment must further find some means to induce the men to 
actually work at this maximum rate. The means which 
Mr. Taylor warmly advocated until many years after his 
reading of "A Piece- Rate System " is called the differen- 
tial rate. By the differential rate is meant a piece-rate 
scheme by which a low rate per piece is paid for a small 
output, and a higher rate per piece for a larger output. 
Its effect is to make the difference between the pay given 
to a good worker and that given to a poor worker even 
greater than the difference in their respective productiv- 
ities. Its purpose is to make it doubly certain that the 
men will keep up to the maximum rate which elementary 
time study has established as possible of achievement. 

It is assumed by Mr. Taylor in the paper under consid- 
eration that the differential rate is justified by the fact 
that, as production increases in volume, the amount of 
overhead expense per article diminishes. He says that 
many manufacturers 

lose sight of the fact that taxes, insurance, depreciation, rent, 
interest, salaries, office expenses, miscellaneous libor, sales ex- 
penses, and frequently the cost of power (which in the aggre- 
gate amount to as much as wages paid to workmen) remain 
about the same whether the output of the establishment is 
great or small.^ 

But when they only understand the situation, " the em- 
ployers can well afford to pay higher wages per piece even 
permanently, providing each man and machine in the 
establishment turns out a proportionately larger amount 
of work." ' 

But an observation of what Taylor says in other places 

^ Transactions, vol. xvi, p. 867. 
^Ihid., p. 867. 



335] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 6l 

shows that in starting the differential-rate system he had 
no intention of actually paying workmen higher wages per 
piece than they had received before. Thus he declares : ^ 

Mr. Halsey is in error, however, in his assumption that my 
system of piece-work involves paying a higher price per piece 
than is paid under the ordinary system. On the contrary, with 
the differential rate the price will, in nine cases out of ten, 
be much lower than would be paid per piece either under the 
ordinary piece-work plan or on day's work. 

What Mr. Taylor did have in mind was the opposite policy 
of lowering the earnings of those who refused to come up 
to the standard. The following illustration given by Mr. 
Taylor in his paper clearly shows this. In the first case to 
which the differential rate was applied, the turning of a 
standard steel forging, the price on days when less than 
lo pieces were turned out was fixed at 25c. each. On days 
when 10 pieces or more were turned out, the price was 
raised to 35c. each. However, the important fact to be 
noted is that under the old system the men had been paid 
not 25c., or even 35c., but 50c. a piece. Thus the differ- 
ential-rate system amounted here to a general cut from 
50c. to 35c. ; the differential feature was merely a further 
provision penalizing those who did not accept the reduc- 
tion — ^those who failed to increase correspondingly, and 
more than correspondingly, their output. " Make good at 
35c. or you will receive only 25c., in which case you might 
as well quit," was, in effect, the command. Or, to put it 
in Taylor's words, " the lower differential rate should be" 
fixed at a figure which will allow the workman to earn 
scarcely an ordinary day's pay when he falls off from his 
maximum pace ^ . . . [a figure] so small as to be unat- 

1 Transactions, vol. xvi, p. 887. 

2 Ibid., p. 873. 



62 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [336 

tractive even to an inferior man." ^ The 25c. rate in the 
case cited v^as therefore not supposed to be an adequate 
compensation, but rather a punishment, the entire object 
of the system being simply to force production to a defi- 
nite predetermined standard. 

Though the differential rate thus punishes those who fall 
short of the standard, at the same time it rewards those 
who succeed by paying them a wage substantially greater 
than would have been allowed under the ordinary piece- 
work system. The men are assured, furthermore, that if 
they keep up to the specified pace, their rates will never be 
cut, and that they may continue indefinitely to earn a 
larger wage than is usual for the trade. 

Thus, to summarize, a combination of elementary time 
study, the differential rate, and a policy of never cutting 
rates, means first, the removal of restrictions on output 
due to fear of rate-cutting; second, the forcing of produc- 
tion up to the maximum, because of the introduction of 
the differential rate; and third, the cheerful maintenance 
of this speed by the men, due to the fact that their perma- 
nent earnings are sufficiently above the average to make 
them contented. While^ — in the illustration on which Mr. 
Taylor dwells — the speed was such that the men " were 
obliged to work at their maximum pace from morning to 
night," so that it made a " big day's work, both for men 
and machines," yet " from the day they first turned 10 
pieces to the present time [1895], a period of more than 
ten years, the men who understood their work have scarcely 
failed a single day to turn at this rate." The differen- 
tial rate was in all cases accepted willingly by the men. 

Although maximum output is especially desirable where 
expensive machinery piles up overhead expense, it is evi- 

1 Transactions, vol. xvi, p. 874. 



337] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 63 

dent from the above explanations that the differential rate 
does not base its justification upon this argument alone; 
its logic might be applied wherever piece-rates are prac- 
ticable. 

c. Conclusions 

In the first stage of its genesis, scientific management 
therefore consisted of two main features : first, the deter- 
mination by elementar3r time study of what constitutes a 
day's work; and second, the differential rate. 

As to the relative merits of the two principles, Mr. Tay- 
lor had the following to say : ^ 

Of the two devices for increasing the output of a shop, the dif- 
ferential rate and the scientific rate-fixing department, the latter 
is by far the more important. The differential rate is invalu- 
able at the start, as a means of convincing men that the man- 
agement is in earnest in its intention of paying a premium for 
hard work; and it at all times furnishes the best means of 
maintaining the top notch of production; but when, through 
its application, the men and the management have come to 
appreciate the mutual benefit of harmonious cooperation and 
respect for each other's rights, it ceases to be an absolute 
necessity. On the other hand, the rate-fixing department, for 
an establishment doing a large variety of work, becomes abso- 
lutely indispensable. The longer it is in operation the more 
necessary it becomes. 

As to the actual value of elementary time study and the 
differential rate, Mr. Taylor claimed that they had been 
in successful operation for the preceding ten years. He 
summarized as follows the typical results: 

^ Transactions, loc. cit., p. 875. 



64 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [338 

Table Showing Superiority of Differential Rate over Ordinary 

Piece- Work from the Viewpoint Both of the Management 

AND THE Men 1 

Ordmary Piece-Work Differential Rate 

(5 pieces at 50c. each) (10 pieces at 35c. each) 

Wages $2.50 Wages $3.50 

Machine cost 3.57 Machine cost Z-Z7 



Total cost per day 5.87 Total cost per day 6.87 

Cost per piece $1.17 Cost per piece $ .69 

Thus Mr. Taylor regarded as typical an increase in pro- 
duction of 100 per cent, an increase in wages of 40 per 
cent, and a reduction in cost of 41 per cent. 

A word now as to the distinction between the points 
of view of Towne and Halsey and of Taylor. The most 
conspicuous respect in which Mr. Taylor differed from 
these gentlemen was in his confidence in the management's 
ability to gain an intimate knowledge as to the details of 
work. Towne and Halsey conceived improvement in in- 
dustry as being of very slow growth. They thought that 
it must necessarily take a long time for the methods of 
work to be brought to perfection; that for many years 
there might be a gradual increase in speed as the workmen 
w^ould discover short cuts that would reduce the time. 
Taylor, on the contrary, boldly proposes that the manage- 
ment determine absolutely and without any room for doubt 
just how long it should take to do work, now and for all 
the future. When Taylor has once completed his investi- 
gations, production is supposed to be forced up to the 
maximum at one leap. There is to be no subsequent im- 
provement extending over a course of years. Or if there 
is, it is not important enough to enter into the calculations. 
Far from being possessed by that fear of making a mistake 
in fixing the rates, which caused Towne and Halsey to pro- 

^ Adapted from Taylor's table, /or. cit., p. 879. 



339] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 65 

pose to divide profits between management and men, Tay- 
lor advocates, in the differential rate, a system which would 
magnify instead of minimize the effect of mistakes. Thus 
the one point in "A Piece-Rate System " w^hich is most 
suggestive of the future development of scientific manage- 
ment is this, that the management is supposed to know 
more about the work than the men themselves — tO' know^ 
more than they know at present, and more than they can 
discover in the future/ 

It may be noted that the hearers of Taylor's paper, in 
spite of the author's repeated emphasis on elementary time 
study, were at the time more interested in the differential 
rate. With the passage of years, however, the tables have 
been somewhat turned, so that, although Taylor long 
continued to claim some merit for the differential rate, his 
followers soon abandoned that part of scientific manage- 
ment almost altogether. The study of unit ti mes now 
stands as the single basis of the system.^ 

2. THE SCOPE OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT ENLARGED 

Between 1895 and 1903 certain fundamental additions 
w^ere made to the body of scientific-management doctrine 

^ We are speaking here of improvements in the method of work, the 
process, tools, and equipment remaining the same. These last will, 
of course, frequently be changed. But the process having been deter- 
mined for the time being and the tools and material conditions of 
work having been specified, the success of Mr. Taylor's system depends 
upon the management's discovering at the outset the very best way 
in which the tools, etc., can be handled. The rate must stand until 
there is another change in conditions. 

^ 'Mr. Taylor had never heard of the differential rate before it was 
invented and put into operation by himself in 1884. It is, however, 
essentially the same thing as is to be found in certain French indus- 
tries, and called " progressive wages " in M. Leroy-Beaulieu's Essai 
sur la repartition des richesses. This should not detract at all from 
Mr. Taylor's independent discovery and application of the principle 
to American industry. 



66 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [340 

and practice; one returning to view the system's progress 
in the latter year would discover that the old features had 
come to constitute only one aspect of a greatly enlarged 
system/ In the study of this second stage of development, 
the most important source is the re-statement of principles 
contained in " Shop Management," a paper read by Fred- 
erick W. Taylor in June, 1903, before the American Soci- 
ety of Mechanical Engineers.^ In **' Shop Management," 
we have the classic of scientific-management literature, a 
paper which both sums up the achievements of the past 
and marks out the lines along which were to occur the 
chief developments of the future. The three following 
divisions will discuss the three principal aspects of the 
completely formulated system. 

a. The First Phase of Complete Scientific Management: 
Securing the Initiative of the Workmen 

In the first part of " Shop Management," one meets 
with those devices for determining maximum output and 
inducing the men to work up to that limit, which consti- 
tuted the one theme of "A Piece-Rate System." Such 
attempts to secure the initiative of the workmen may now 
be classified as simply the first phase of the enlarged system. 
Before dismissing this aspect of the subject it will only be 
necessar}^ to add such details as will bring the story down 
to the year 1903. 

The first new point brought out in " Shop Management " 
consists in the announcement that the great success of the 
system is due to the passing by of ordinary workmen and 
the employment of unusual men only. The reason why 

^ The development of 1895-1903 included the advances made at 
Bethlehem and the work of Sanford E. Thompson in reorganizing 
the building trades. 

"^Transactions, \ol. xxiv. 



341 ] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT Qy 

Taylor's men could accomplish so much more than those in 
other shops was because he had taken sufficient pains, and 
offered high enough wages to draw to him superior work- 
men — men who were so constituted mentally and physically 
that they could maintain a very rapid pace. ''The possibility N 
of coupling high wages with a low labor cost rests mainly 
upon the enormous difference between the amount of work 
which a first-class man can do under favorable circum- 
stances and the work which is actually done by the average 
man." ^ In most cases first-class men can do "from two 
to four times as much as is done on an average." 

A second conspicuous feature of " Shop Management " 
is the relatively lighter stress now laid upon the differen- 
tial rate. The differential rate is still recommended as the 
simplest and most forceful way of controlling the labor 
situation. But as more convenient in some circumstances 
is mentioned Mr. Gantt's device, invented two years earlier, 
known as " Task Work with a Bonus." We may note 
that the recommendation of both of these systems is based 
on the fact that each in its own way causes the men to re- 
ceive automatically and daily either an extra reward in 
case of complete success, or a distinct loss in case they fall 
off even a little. In some cases, it is stated, day-work or 
straight piece-work may be coupled with elementary time 
study and made to achieve excellent results. Thus the con- 
clusion may be drawn from Mr. Taylor's discussion that 
the precise wage system has now become comparatively 
unimportant, and depends for its justification largely upon 
the circumstances of the case. The only important con- 
sideration is to adopt some means by which extra high 
wages are offered for extra hard work. 

One other observation: The precision with which Tay- 

'P- 1345. 



68 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [342 

lor was accustomed to analyze human nature is well illus- 
trated by the following quotation, taken from his advice 
as to how great, under varying circumstances, a workman's 
extra reward should be : ^ 

The writer has found, for example, after making many mis- 
takes above and below the proper mark, that to get the maxi- 
mum output for ordinary shop work requiring neither special 
brains, very close application, skill, nor extra hard work, . . . 
it is necessary to pay about 30 per cent more than the average. 
For ordinary day labor requiring little brains or special skill, 
but calling for strength, severe bodily exertion and fatigue, it is 
necessary to pay from 50 per cent to 60 per cent above the 
average. For work requiring especial skill or brains, coupled 
with close application but without severe bodily exertion, such 
as the more difficult and delicate machinist's work, from 70 
per cent to 80 per cent beyond the average. And for work 
requiring skill, brains, close application, strength and severe 
bodily exertion, such, for instance, as that involved in run- 
ning a well run steam hammer doing miscellaneous work, from 
80 per cent to 100 per cent beyond the average. 

Outside of the above-noted explanations, and a stock of 
new illustrative material, " Shop Management's " treat- 
ment of the phase of scientific management which has tO' 
do with the securing of the initiative of the workmen is 
essentially the same as that presented eight years before. 
The starting-point of the system is still the determination 
of a " standard time," or '' quickest time," by the study 
of " unit times." The manner in which the final results 
are assured is indicated by the capitalized mottoes, "A 
Large Daily Task," " High Pay for Success," and 
" Loss IN Case of Failure." (The significance of an- 
other motto, " Standard Conditions," is bound up more 

^P. 1346. 



343] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 69 

with the second than with the first aspect of scientific 
management. ) 

b. The Second Phase of Complete Scientific Management: 
Improving Methods of Work 
The second group of principles contained in " Shop 
Management " do not appear all in one place, but are scat- 
tered, for the most part, through the latter half of the 
paper. They have to do, not with drawing more effort 
from the men, but with introducing more efficient methods 
of work. The manner in which this new field was entered 
will be the topic of discussion in the following half a dozen 
sections. The leading principles will be stated and illus- 
trated therein — as nearly as can be, in the order of their 
respective importance. 

(i) Standardization of Tools and Equipment 
The original reason for the infusion of standardization 
into scientific management was a demand for it on the part 
of scientific rate-fixing. It was early realized that it might 
well happen that a job which time-study analysis had found 
could be done in one hour would actually take various 
workmen times ranging from one hour, to an hour and a 
half, or two hours — for no other reason than that their re- 
spective machines were in different conditions. It was to 
avoid this unevenness of earnings, which would brand the 
system as ridiculous and unfair, even more than to secure 
the advantage of better equipment for its own sake, that 
the question of standardization of tools and equipment was 
first taken up. 

It is uniformity that is required. Better have them [the tools] 
uniformly second class than mainly first with some second and 
some third class thrown in at random. In the latter case the 
workmen will almost always adopt the pace which conforms 
to the third class instead of the first or second.^ 

^ Transactions, loc. cit., p. 1407. 



JO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [344 

Thus standardization was originally regarded as merely 
a preliminary step — a means to the attainment of the more 
important end of securing maximum effort on the part of 
the workmen. As early as 1895, however, it was recog- 
nized that the means was in itself of considerable value. 
Thus in ''A Piece-Rate System," Mr. Taylor says ^ that 
" not the least of the benefits of elementary rate-fixing are 
the indirect results." He then refers to the great benefits 
which were derived at the plant of the Midvale Steel Com- 
pany because elementary time study enabled the manage- 
ment to correct faults and make improvements in machine 
construction. The study "developed the fact that they [the 
machines] were none of them designed and speeded so as 
to cut steel to the best advantage." The company has 
accordingly "demanded alterations from the standard in 
almost every machine which they have bought during the, 
past eight years," and has itself superintended " the de- 
sign of many special tools which would not have been 
thought of had it not been for elementary rate-fixing." 
Not only has there been improvement due to the study of 
machines^ — 

But what is, perhaps, of more importance still, the rate-fixing 
department has shown the necessity of carefully systematizing 
all of the small details in the running of each shop ; such as the 
care of belting, the proper shape for cutting topis, and the 
dressing, grinding, and issuing same, oiling machines, issuing 
orders for work, obtaining accurate labor and material returns, 
and a host of other minor methods and processes. These de- 
tails, which are usually regarded as of comparatively small im- 
portance, and many of which are left to the individual judgment 
of the foreman and workmen, are shown by the rate-fixing de- 
partment to be of paramount importance in obtaining the 

*The quotations in this paragraph are taken from Transactions, 
vol. xvi, p. 877. 



345] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT yi 

maximum output, and to require the most careful and syste- 
matic study and attention in order to insure uniformity and a 
fair and equal chance for each workman. 

These improvements in machines and in shop routine are 
a joint product of the effort to establish standards for tools 
and equipment, and the desire to discover the quickest time 
in which work can be done. 

Thus there is in "A Piece-Rate System" one page which 
forcefully enumerates the incidental advantages rising from 
standardization — a passage which clearly anticipates the 
prominence to be given to the subject later in " Shop Man- 
agement." This fact makes it a little hard to tell when 
scientific management was enlarged to cover standardiza- 
tion — the same was utilized from the beginning. If, how- 
ever, we make our decision as to when different features 
were added to scientific management depend upon the time 
when they assumed a real place in the thought of the lead- 
ers, we may decide that standardization properly fitted into 
the system of 1903, but not into that of 1895. 

Standardization is looked upon to-day as important, not 
only because it means uniformity of working conditions, 
but also because it means that all tools and all working 
conditions will be of the best. 

The origin of the other features next to be considered 
need not be discussed as critically as was necessary in the 
case of standardization. They find no expression in "A 
Piece-Rate System." Though doubtless most of them were 
latent in the system in 1895, only in " Shop Management/* 
and indeed not fully then, were they revealed as one of the 
great major ends of scientific management. 

(2) Routing and Scheduling 
By routing is meant the designation of the machine or 



/" 



y2 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [346 

man tO' which work is to be sent. Two sorts of advantages 
may be sought. In some cases the end in view is to 
choose the machines, or perhaps arrange them, so that the 
work will not need to be moved an unnecessary distance. 
In other cases, not the distances, but the machines them- 
selves, or their operators, are the objects of study. Thus 
the chief in charge of an efficient routing system takes care 
that the machines and men always have the right amount 
of work on hand; which means, among other things, that 
the loss of time through waiting for a job is eliminated. 
He also endeavors to send the work to those machines and 
men that are best fitted for it. Finally, rush jobs are dis- 
patched first, and a system is arranged by which large 
orders are not kept waiting because of negligence in com- 
pleting some of their parts. Scheduling is routing as re- 
gards the time aspect. By routing, it is decided where the 
work shall be done; by scheduling, when. Thus they are 
merely the two sides of the same thing. 

From the time when the first factory was opened until the 
present day, it has of course been not the least of the duties 
of the management to decide when and by whom the work 
shall be done. Routing and scheduling are here classified as 
a part of scientific management only because in connection 
with this system they have been carried to a remarkable de- 
gree of refinement. The reason for this unusual development 
is, of course, due to the fact that the workmen, to make 
their proper pay, are obliged to apply themselves vigorously 
and constantly, a situation which makes it of the utmost 
importance that the work pass through the shop in so 
orderly a manner that the men may be employed without 
interruption. But the mechanism of routing once having 
for this reason been put into operation, scientific manage- 
ment has seized the opportunity afforded, to accomplish 
savings along all the broader lines mentioned above. It is 



347] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 73 

explained in " Shop Management " ^ that there is a special 
" Order of Work or Route Clerk," who lays out " the 
exact route which each piece of work is to travel through 
the shop from machine to machine," and who daily writes 
out instructions which " constitute the chief means for 
directing the workmen [as well as the bosses] in this par- 
ticular function." The result is shown not only in the 
earnings of the men, but also in the prompt and economical 
completion of the work. 

It may be noted in this connection that routing and 
scheduling, though an essential part of scientific manage- 
ment at the time when " Shop Management " was written, 
were later to receive a much fuller development — as in the 
plant of the Tabor Manufacturing Company. Routing and 
scheduling now constitute one of the most profitable fea- 
tures of the system. 

(3) Instruction Cards 

An instruction card is a set of directions for the per- 
formance of a special piece of work. To many this system 
seems supervision gone mad. What possible saving can 
there be in one man's anticipating every act on the part of 
another by issuing a written order ! The key to an under- 
standing of the purpose of the instruction card is to be 
found in the peculiar conditions existing in a shop given 
over to the cutting of metals. It was here that the system 
originated, and it is of such a shop that Mr. Taylor and 
others are thinking when they speak of the instruction card. 

The story of the situation in metal-cutting shops, of the 
long effort of Taylor and others to facilitate production 
therein, and of their final triumph — this is referred to and 
briefly treated in " Shop Management." For a sketch of 
the movement, however, it is advisable to rely on the far 

* Transactions, vol. xxiv, p. 1393. 



74 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [348 

better account given three years later in Taylor's paper, 
"On the Art of Cutting Metals" ^ — a treatise which was at 
the time appraised by the editor of the Transactions as prob- 
ably the most remarkable contribution ever received by the 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

The gist of the problem w^hich confronts a workman in 
charge of a metal-cutting machine is thus concisely put in 
the last-named paper : 

There are three questions which must be answered each day in 
every machine shop by every machinist who is running a metal- 
cutting machine, such as a lathe, planer, drill press, milling ma- 
chine, etc., namely : 

(a) What tool shall I use? 

(b) What cutting speed ^ shall I use? 

(c) What feed shall I use? 

This problem, although one to which the machinist has per- 
haps devoted many years, is quite impossible of accurate 
solution by his judgment alone. For a choice of the most 
efficient speed and feed is not the same from job to job; 
but its determination is almost infinitely complicated by the 
fact that it depends upon twelve variables. There must be 
taken into account (a) the quality of the metal which is 
to be cut, (b) the diameter of the work, (c) the depth of 
cut, (d) the thickness of the shaving, and so on through 
(e), (f), (g), and five others. The desire to find a scien- 
tific way of solving this hitherto unsatisfactorily ap- 
proached question led Taylor, in 1880, to start an investi- 
gation along these lines, as a part of his managerial duties. 

* Transactions, vol. xxviii, p. 31. 

' Taking a lathe for illustration, the speed is the rate at which the 
surface to be dressed is brought into contact with the tool, while the 
feed is the rate at which the tool — or the work — is moved laterally so 
that the tool may come in contact with fresh areas of surface. 



349] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT y^ 

The task proved unexpectedly severe. Mr. Taylor 
'thought he would complete it in six months, but instead it 
took twenty-six years. More than 800,000 pounds of iron 
and steel w^re cut up into chips, and through the aid of 
certain great corporations between $150,000 and $200,000 
was spent on the experiments. Nevertheless the problem 
w^as solved, and most important of all, the scientific for- 
mulae obtained were embodied between 1899 and 1902 in 
slide rules, " which are so simple that they enable an ordi- 
nary workman to make practical and rapid every-day use 
in the shop of all the laws and formulae deduced from 
[the] experiments." 

As a matter of shop practice, however, it is much easier 
to have this clerical work attended to in the office, and it 
is for precisely this reason that the instruction card was 
introduced. Blanks similar to the one shown below are 
filled out in the office, or as we may now call it the '' plan- 
ning department," and then sent to the men on the machines. 
They tell the workmen briefly 

the general and detail drawing to refer to, the piece number 
and the cost order number to charge the work to, the special 
jigs, fixtures, or tools to use, where to start each cut, the exact 
depth of each cut, and how many cuts to take, the speed and 
feed to be used for each cut, and the time within which each 
operation must be finished,^ 

as well as information regarding the rate of pay. Care is 
also taken to suggest such an order for the performance of 
the different operations as will minimize unnecessary ad- 
justments of the machine, and facilitate the handling of 
the work. 

^ Transactions, vol. xxiv, p. 1393. 



76 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [350 

A BLANK 
Tire-Turning Instruction Card^ 

Machine shop 

Order for « Tires 

Do work on Tire No 

as follows and per blueprint 

[I] [2] [3] [4] [5] L6] [7] 





S 


6 

us 


(U 
N 


Q 


Q 


•s 


<U 


.2 

s . 

(U Q.) 

a 
<u 


Surface to be machined 




Set tire on machine ready to turn 












" 




Rough face front edge 
















Finish face front edge 
















Rough bore front 

















Finish bore front 
















Rough face front I. S. C 
















Cut out filled 
















Rough bore front I. S. K 
















Rough face back edge 
















Finish face back edge 
















Finish bore back 
















Rough bore back 
















Rough face back I. S. F 
















Cut out filled 
















Cut recess 
















Rough turn thread 
















Finish turn thread > 
















Rough turn flange 
















Finish turn flange 
















Clean fillet of flance 
















Remove tire from machine and clean 
face plate 

































It is thus seen that the instruction card is a combination 
of specifications covering the work, and of instructions as 
to methods. Its use is primarily in that field where there 

1 Transactions, vol. xxiv, p. 1382. 



35 1 ] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT yy 

is associated with manual work a large and rather abstruse 
technical element, and especially where inefficiency would 
not only lead to a high wage cost, but also involve waste 
in the operation of expensive machine processes. It fre- 
quently represents the results of years of scientific study 
put in the most convenient form for the use of the work- 
men. If the card be for special work, it cannot, of course, 
go into small details, but merely gives a skeleton of the 
important things to look after in the execution of the task. 
Though the idea of the instruction card has been ex- 
tended to serve various other purposes, its type is the special 
card described above. When a scientific-management ex- 
pert speaks of an " instruction card," he is not thinking 
of general information tabulated for permanent reference 
— at least not usually. This latter device could, of course, 
form a part of scientific management; but, as a matter of 
fact, it has never received emphasis. 

(4) Motion Study ^ y 

Shortly after the beginning of the Spanish war (1898), 
a rise in the price of pig iron led the Bethlehem Steel Com- 

^ Perhaps the most interesting illustration of motion study is Gil- 
breth's reorganization of bricklaying. Striking, also, were the ex- 
tensive experiments made at Bethlehem covering the art of shoveling. 
The first of these tasks, however, was not undertaken until some 
years after " Shop Management " was written, and the latter was 
given scanty consideration therein. Indeed, one cannot gather a very 
satisfactory account of motion study entirely from literature written 
as early as 1903. Details are lacking; perhaps at the time the value 
of the principle was not really appreciated. It would be a mistake, 
however, to pass the subject of motion study entirely by in this con- 
nection; for it was in fact highly developed by 1903, and indeed at 
many points almost came to the surface of " Shop Management." We 
have therefore ventured to describe an undertaking whose results are 
given in that paper, though for working details we must rely almost 
altogether on Taylor's later Principles of Scientific Management 
(1911). 



yS SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [3^2 

pany to sell, and to prepare to load on cars, eighty thousand 
tons of pig iron, until then stored in small piles in an open 
field. The pig-iron handlers had started on the great task 
at an average rate of 12}^ long tons per man per day, a 
rate which was, " on the whole, about as fast ... as it 
was anywhere else at that time." Then it was that Mr. 
Taylor determined to apply scientific management; and, by 
combining an ofifer of high pay for success with careful 
selection of his men and scientific direction as to the way 
in which they should attack their work, succeeded in in- 
creasing the average achievement, so that every man loaded, 
not 12}^, but 47 J^ long tons a day. These phenomenal 
results could not have been produced by motion study 
alone; but that it was a necessary factor, the following 
explanation will make clear. 

In the field of heavy laboring, science's opportunity to 
help the workman lies, not in suggesting a system of deft 
or ingenious movements, but rather in minimizing muscular 
strain — in utilizing human energy to the utmost. When 
Mr. Taylor determined to increase the achievements of 
pig-iron handlers at Bethlehem, he dared not induce them 
to speed up as they themselves might choose ; he foresaw 
that they would start in with a rush, and stop because of 
fatigue long before the day's task was performed. It was 
found, however, that a man of suitable physique could in- 
crease the number of tons handled with perfect safety pro- 
vided the overseers enforced periods of rest at frequent 
intervals. In short, this guiding principle was discovered : 
that to do his best, a first-class laborer carrying pigs weigh- 
ing 92 pounds each should be under load only 43 per cent 
of the time. The " science " of handling pig iron, there- 
fore, consisted first in choosing the proper men, and then 
in making them rest at intervals which had been found by 
careful investigation to be the most efficient; only by thus 



353] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT yg 

regulating the expenditure of energy could the 47^ tons 
be loaded on the car. 

The above account illustrates two of the chief reasons 
why the management is sometimes better equipped than the 
workmen to plan the latter's motions. In the first place, 
in grappling with the problem of pig-iron handling, the 
Bethlehem management was able to employ better trained 
brains than were prevalent among the laborers. That the 
latter would have been utterly incapable of finding the cor- 
rect solution of the problem is evidenced by their entire 
ignorance of the very concept of percentage. In the second 
place, the highest success would have been impossible with- 
out the appropriation of a larger amount of time and 
money than any one individual could have afforded. 

A third argument for the introduction of motion study 
by the management finds force in those circumstances 
w^here one individual, no matter how able or learned, could 
not possibly adopt efficient methods — because he is work- 
ing in cooperation with others to whose habits he must 
conform. A good example of this is presented in Gilbreth's 
reorganization of bricklaying. 

(5) Selection of Workmen 

Incidental reference has been made to the selection of 
only first-class men to serve as pig-iron handlers. Mr. 
Taylor explains that of the seventy-five men who had be- 
fore constituted the gang at Bethlehem, only one out of 
eight was physically capable of maintaining the pace set 
under scientific management. 

In another part of " Shop Management," there is de- 
scribed the application of scientific management to the in- 
spection of bicycle balls in the works of the Symonds Roll- 
ing Machine Company, as a result of which " thirty-five 
girls did the work formerly done by one hundred and 



8o SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [354 

twenty." ^ Taylor later ^ explained that, in this case, "the 
one element which did more than all of the others was the 
careful selection of girls with quick perception to replace 
those whose perceptions were slow." 

These two illustrations, covering widely dissimilar sorts 
of work, show that a great increase in efficiency may some- 
times be realized through selecting from the countless types 
of possible workers only those whose mental or physical 
make-up especially adapts them for the work at hand. The 
pace for such a selected group may be made far more 
rapid than would be otherwise possible — - without doing 
anyone an injury. 

(6) Supplies 

The fundamental object of scientific management being 
to permit every man to accomplish the full amount of 
work of which he is capable, the system consequently takes 
great pains to guard against a lack of supplies. As soon 
as an order is received requisitions are made out for all 
the materials which will be needed, so that the clerk in 
charge of stores may have ample warning. This clerk 
keeps a balance record of the goods actually in the bins, 
minus such materials as have been reserved for the filling 
of requisitions. He has set for him a minimum limit. 
When a requisition informs him that there are coming 
through the shop, orders which when filled will reduce the 
stock below this limit, he at once notifies the purchasing 
agent or other proper party, and steps are taken towards 
replenishment. Of far greater consequence than the elimi- 
nation of forced waiting on the part of the men is the 
prevention, through this system, of delays in the filling of 
orders. 

^ Transactions, vol. xxiv, p. 1384. 

"^Principles of Scientific Management (1911), p. 96. 



355] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT gl 

Under the general head of supplies may be mentioned 
two additional features. First, the shops which have in- 
troduced scientific management are proud of their tool 
rooms. Considerable ingenuity has been displayed in ar- 
ranging tools in a space-economizing order, and a clever 
system of mnemonic symbols has been introduced to avoid 
confusion. Every tool must be in perfect condition when 
given to the workman. The other point is that scientific 
management takes phenomenal pains to look after all those 
small supplies for the lack of which high-priced w^orkmen 
are often compelled to delay their work. Everything that 
a man may need to complete a job is brought to him before 
the task is begun. 

In closing, it should be noted that the several features 
discussed under the head of supplies, although mentioned 
in " Shop Management," were to find their most perfect 
development later in the plant of the Tabor Manufactur- 
ing Company. 

(7) Conclusions 

The above sections have considered the ways in which 
scientific management has gone beyond mere task-setting 
and striven to improve the methods of work. 

A beginning of the development in this direction was 
noted in the system as presented in 1895, along the line 
of standardization. But that this phase was not then re- 
garded as of very great consequence is shown by the fol- 
lowing quotation : ^ " The above result [the gain from 
scientific management] was mostl3^ though not entirely, 
due to the differential rate. The superior system of man- 
aging all of the small details of the shop counted for con- 
siderable." 

Credit belongs to " Shop Management" (1903) for the 

* Taylor, description of scientific managememt at Midvale, " A Piece- 
Rate System," Transactions, vol. xvi, p. 879. 



82 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [3^5 

main announcement of the entry of scientific management 
into the field of directing men. There, for the first time, the 
planning of work was given prominence. Nevertheless 
even in " Shop Management," we found that several im- 
portant efficiency features were given but small space. 

It really took seven years more for the full significance 
of the new phase to be appreciated. But by 1910 it had 
certainly come into its own; in that year Brandeis went so 
far as to avow that the essence of the whole system is in 
the separation of planning from performing.^ 

The question as to whether this new emphasis is a proper 
one — whether scientific management is mainly a device for 
drawing effort out of men, or rather a system of efficient 
factory methods — this important question will be treated 
critically at a later point. 

c. The Third Phase of Complete Scientific Management: 

Organization 

The reader of the foregoing must have been impressed 
with the arduousness of the labor which scientific manage- 
ment encounters in each of its two great fields. To accom- 
plish the system's first end, a management must determine 
by elaborate analysis the exact time which it should take 
to perform each factory job; to be successful from the 
second point of view, it must undertake a thorough study 

^ This shifting in emphasis may have been due to the fact that the 
earlier papers were written primarily for engineers and manufacturers, 
while the later statements were framed for the general public, — being 
part of a program to popularize the new system. The thought 
therefore shifted between 1903 and 1910 from the system's selfish as- 
pects to those more widely beneficial; and its philosophy was revised, 
even where practice remained almost unaltered. 

Quite the contrary had been the case between 1895 and 1903. There 
was in this earlier period a real broadening of scope. But the ad- 
vance in presentation attained by 1903 was behind, rather than ahead 
of, the improvement in substance. 



357] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT g^ 

of the efficiency of innumerable details of factory life. 
Moreover, the difficulty of the task is increased by another 
consideration : After the bosses have assigned the work to 
the men, they take upon themselves the further duty of 
seeing that the goal is actually attained; that is, the man- 
agement makes itself responsible for the success of each 
workman — studies the causes of each individual's failures; 
and discouragements, and is, in fact, a teacher, ever ready 
to lend a helping hand. Considering everything, therefore, 
the amount of direction under scientific management is 
often several times as great as under ordinary systems. 

The assumption by the directing force of these manifold 
duties has brought it about that, simultaneously with the 
appearance of the first two phases of the system, the man- 
agement has been compelled to develop in a third direction. 
Organization, its growth and adaptation to meet the strain 
imposed upon it, becomes the topic of the present section. 

The first and most obvious alteration in the organization 
of a plant consequent upon the introduction of scientific 
management is the establishment of a planning department. 
This change is significant first because it means a larger 
organization. In the works of the Tabor Manufacturing 
Company, for instance, before the introduction of scien- 
tific management, the number of men whose activity cen- 
tered in the office was 5, as against 105 employed in purely 
shop work; afterwards, the ratio was 20 to 75. The 
strength of the management per one hundred men in the 
shop was thus made more than five times as great. ^ 

But the change in organization which attends the estab- 
lishment of a planning department is not one of size only. 
Reorganization means the centralization of a certain type 

* Evidence Taken by the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 
Matter of Proposed Advances in Freight Rates by Carriers (1910)^ 
vol. Iv, p. 2660. 



84 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [3^3 

of work in one planning-room. Not only are the new func- 
tions of management carried on in the planning-room, but 
wherever possible, work that was before performed by the 
men in the shop is put into the hands of clerks in the office. 
Indeed, it is claimed that almost all of what appear to be 
novel duties, created by scientific management, should 
really be classified as falling under this latter head — that 
of work which was previously done, — only in clumsy fash- 
ion, — by the workmen. The imposing of duties upon the 
planning department, therefore, consists, not so much in 
piling up new tasks, as in relieving the grimy hands of the 
machinists of certain clerical routine; and in planning as 
much of the work as possible in a place where adequate 
records, roomy desks, and expert heads are available. 

As far as possible the workmen, as well as the gang bosses 
and foremen, should be entirely relieved of the work of plan- 
ning, and of all work which is more or less clerical in its nature. 
All possible brain work should be removed from the shop and 
centered in the planning or laying-out department. . . } 

The second great change in organization due to scien- 
tific management is a certain specialization among the mem- 
bers of the planning and directing force. This develop- 
ment, which is called functional management, is in part a 
consequence of increased numbers, but not entirely. The 
main reason given by Mr. Taylor for introducing func- 
tional management is the scarcity of good all-around fore- 
men. To quote : ^ 

These nine qualities go to make up a well rounded man : Brains, 
education, special or technical knowledge [or] manual dexterity 
or strength, tact, energy, grit, honesty, judgment or common 
sense, and good health. 

* " Shop Management," in Transactions, vol. xxiv, p. 1390. 
2/feic/., p. 1389. 



359] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT g^ 

Plenty of men who possess only three of the above quali- 
ties can be hired at any time for laborers' wages. Add four 
of these qualities together and you get a higher priced man. 
The man combining five of these qualities begins to be hard 
to find, and those with six, seven, and eight are almost im- 
possible to get. 

Mr. Taylor reviews the things which an ordinary fore- 
man is supposed to do and finds them so complex that he 
abandons altogether the old system of having all sides of 
a workman's activities directed by one person. He substi- 
tutes for it a system of eight bosses, eight functional fore- 
men, who each have only a few things to look after. Four 
of these bosses are on hand in the shop. '' The gang boss 
has charge of the preparation of all work up to the time 
that the piece is set in the machine." ^ Matters connected 
with the assignment of tasks, the supplying of jigs, tem- 
plets, drawings, etc., and the accurate and rapid setting of 
work are his peculiar function. The province of the speed 
boss begins after the piece is in the lathe or planer, and 
ends when the actual machining is done. It is his duty to 
see that the proper tools are chosen, that the cuts are 
started in the right place, that the best speeds, feeds, and 
depths of cut are used. The functions of the inspector are 
self-explanatory.^ " The repair boss sees that each work- 
man keeps his machine clean, free from rust and scratches, 
and that he oils and treats it properly," etc. 

Four other bosses are in the planning-room. but they 
nevertheless come in direct contact with the w^ork of each 
machinist, mainly through writing. The order of work or 
route clerk makes out daily lists covering '' the exact order 

^ Transactions, loc. cit., p. 1392. 
In more recent years, at least, the inspector under scientific manage- 
ment has been entrusted with the teaching of workman as to how they 
may attain to necessary standards. 



86 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [360 

in which the work is to be done by each class of machines 
or men." The instruction^card clerk, by means of the in- 
struction card, transmits to the man at the machine, not 
only all necessary details as to the specifications for the 
work, but also such data, drawn from the files in the office, 
as may suggest the most efficient methods of operation. 
The time and cost clerk gives to the men, also by means of 
the instruction card, such information as they should have 
concerning time and rates, and secures from them proper 
returns for the office records. The shop disciplinarian, "in 
case of insubordination or impudence, repeated failure to 
do their duty, lateness or unexcused absence, . . . takes 
the workmen or bosses in hand and applies the proper 
remedy, and sees that a complete record of each man's 
virtues and defects is kept." He should have much to do 
with readjusting wages; one of his important functions 
should be that of peace-maker.^ 

While a critical estimate of the importance of the fea- 
tures just outlined is reserved for a later chapter, this much 
may be indicated here, that the above type of organization 
is not as fundamental a part of scientific management as 
are the two primary phases. Changes of organization of 
some sort certainly must be made. But the precise scheme 
here described, though believed by the closer adherents of 
Mr. Taylor to constitute the best possible solution of the 
problem, is viewed by others as too elaborate to be adapted 
to all shop situations. 

In general, scientific management involves an internal re- 
adjustment by which division of labor and specialization 
of skill are pushed much further than before, both as re- 
gards the work of the shop and that of the management. 

^ Functional foremanship has been described here in the terms of 
the metal-cutting shop. Its application to other industries would be 
attended by considerable alteration in detail, but perhaps little change 
in essential principle. 



361] GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT gy 

3. CONCLUSION : THE GENESIS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF 
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 

With the publication of '' Shop Management " the gen- 
esis of scientific management may be regarded as complete. 
There have, indeed, been great changes since 1903; but 
each of the developments of the last twelve years may be 
classified as either a new emphasis on, or a more perfect 
working-out of, some one or another of the old ideas. The 
two following chapters will present the facts regarding the 
application of the aforesaid principles. A characterization 
of the life and work of the several great leaders, and then 
a more detailed survey of the chief instances of the intro- 
duction of the system, will complete, by bringing down to 
the present date, the history of scientific management. 



CHAPTER IV 

LIVES OF THE LEADERS 

Including Certain Contributions to the Enrich- 
ment OF Scientific Management 

I. FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 

So much has already been said in regard to the founder 
of scientific management that we will here content our- 
selves with presenting little more than a summary of his 
life. Frederick Winslow, son of Franklin and Emily 
(Winslow) Taylor, was born March 20, 1856, at German- 
town, Philadelphia. He received part of his primary edu- 
cation in France, Germany, and Italy, ^ and was pre- 
pared for Harvard at Phillips Exeter Academy (where his 
instructor in mathematics was George A. Wentworth, the 
author of many well-known textbooks). Impaired eye- 
sight, however, changed his educational plans, and during 
four years of his youth he served apprenticeships as a 
pattern-maker and as a machinist, in a small pump- works 
at Philadelphia. 

When, at the age of 22, he was ready to practice his 
trade, the depression still lingering from the panic of 1873 
compelled him to start as a laborer. Thus was begun an 
eleven years' employment in the works of the Midvale 
Steel Company, during which Taylor was rapidly pro- 
moted. From 1878 to 1880 he served as laborer, clerk, 

1 He was abroad for three years and a half, and attended schools in 
Paris, Berlin, Stuttgart, and Italy. 

88 [362 



363] LIVES OF THE LEADERS 89 

and (for about two months) journeyman machinist; from 
1880 to 1882 as gang-boss; from 1882 until the time of 
his leaving in 1889, as foreman, chief draughtsman, and 
finally (having taken the degree of Mechanical Engineer 
from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1883), as 
chief engineer. It was when Taylor became gang-boss in 
1880 that he first determined to discover, by scientific 
methods, how long it should take men to perform each 
given piece of work; and it was in the fall of 1882, shortly 
after he had been elevated to the position of foreman, that 
he started to put the first features of scientific management 
into operation. 

In 1889 Mr. Taylor decided to apply his ideas in a wider 
field. He served for three years a corporation operating 
large pulp-mills in Maine, and then attempted in various 
parts of the country a reorganization of industrial plants. 
This involved a variety of manufacturing, structural, and 
engineering work; but his most celebrated undertakings 
were in connection with the plant of the Bethlehem Steel 
Company between 1898 and 1901. In 1901, Mr. Taylor's 
possession of a fortune enabled him to retire from work 
for pay; ^ but it was only to give himself more completely 
to the cause of scientific management. Thus he testified ^ 
that, since 1901, in giving assistance to friends who desired 
to improve their own or others' plants, he had " spent 
more than one-third " of his income, and given his ''whole 
personal time " — this without any money compensation, 
direct or remote. Especially as adviser of, and owner of 
a small interest in the Tabor Manufacturing Company, 
and as a consultant for the Link-Belt Company, has he 

'^Hearings before Special Committee of the House of Representa- 
tives to Investigate the Taylor and Other Systems of Shop Manage- 
ment, p. 1507. 

' Ihid., p. 1490. 



90 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [364 

had a hand in the creation of what is regarded as the high- 
est development of scientific management. 

Mr. Taylor has taken out about one hundred patents, his 
greatest invention being the discovery between 1898 and 
1900, jointly with Mr. Maunsel White, of the Taylor- 
White high-speed steel. This invention, according to the 
highest authorities, has revolutionized the machine shops 
of the world, enabling tools to cut metal at least three 
times as rapidly as before. The inventors received $100,- 
000 for the English patents alone. Fame again came to 
Mr. Taylor upon his publication, in 1906, of the results of 
the extended researches of himself and others in the art 
of cutting metals ^ — a work of genuine scientific character, 
and of the highest practical importance. Mr. Taylor, how- 
ever, regarded as of far greater moment than all this other 
work his share in the discovery of the principles of scien- 
tific management. 

Among the honors which have been conferred upon 
Taylor are a gold medal from the Paris Exposition of 
1900, the presidency of the American Society of Mechan- 
ical Engineers during 1906, and the degree of Doctor of 
Science from the University of Pennsylvania, also in 1906. 
In January, 19 12, he stated that he was then receiving, 
from all parts of the country, invitations to make addresses 
at the rate of one a day. His Principles of Scientific Man- 
agement has been translated into French, German, Dutch, 
Danish, Swedish, Lettisch, Italian, Japanese, and Mexican; 
his " Shop Management " into French, German, Dutch, 
and Russian. 

Mr. Taylor died March 21, 191 5, just after passing his 
fifty-ninth birthday. The physical fitness that once won 

^ " On the Art of Cutting Metals," in Transactions of the American 
Society of Mechanical Engineers, vol. xxviii. 



365] LIVES OF THE LEADERS 9I 

him a national tennis championship, and the mental stamina 
and bull-dog tenacity with which he always held to an idea 
which he had decided to pursue, were mellowed and broad- 
ened with the passing years into those genial qualities of 
host and friend that made the Taylor home at Chestnut 
Hill, Philadelphia, a delightful Mecca for those interested 
in scientific management, and Mr. Taylor himself the elder 
among a group of loyal followers/ Even the men who 
most disapprove of scientific management have nothing but 
good to say about Mr. Taylor personally, and his death 
will be felt as a personal bereavement by a large circle of 
friends as well as a great loss to the cause which he so ably 
and so unselfishly served.^ 

^ Many who recognize the bigness of Taylor's service view unfavor- 
ably some aspects of his methods. They complain that he would not 
relax at all from one original plan, but insisted that a shop be reor- 
ganized in every detail according to a prolonged and complicated pro- 
gram. Furthermore, the thoroughness of his reform had to include 
the timing of operations in units much more refined than most other 
efficiency men attempt. For these reasons, and because he retired from 
regular practice as early as 1901, critics and even friends insist that 
Taylor has himself accomplished far less than various followers who 
have caught his spirit but revised his methods. This assertion, how- 
ever, they rarely intend as a reflection on Taylor's leadership, as many 
efficiency engineers only remotely connected with the Taylor following 
are ready to admit that if it had not been for Taylor's example, they 
would probably not be found in their present line of work. 

' Among Mr. Taylor's chief writings may be enumerated the fol- 
lowing papers read before the American Society of Mechanical En- 
gineers : "A Piece-Rate System" (1895); "Shop Management" 
(1903) ; " On the Art of Cutting Metals " (1906). With S. E. Thomp- 
son, he has written Concrete, Plain and Reinforced (1905), and Con- 
crete Costs (1911). His philosophy is, however, best expressed in 
The Principles of Scientific Management (1911). His system is also 
explained in contributions to the periodicals ; in numerous addresses ; 
in testimony before the special House committee which investigated 
scientific management (1911-12) ; and in testimony before the Indus- 
trial Relations Commission (April, 1914). 



92 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [366 

2. HENRY L. GANTT 

Henry L. Gantt, who is five years younger than Taylor, 
graduated from Johns Hopkins University with the degree 
of A. B. in 1880; taught school for the following three 
years; and, in 1884, secured his M. E. from Stevens Insti- 
tute of Technology. His first important work was for the 
Midvale Steel Company, where he remained six years/ It 
was here that (in 1887) he first came in contact with the 
methods of scientific management, being employed for a 
year and a half under the direction of Mr. Taylor. His 
task was to find some means by which the laws governing 
the cutting of metals might be quickly applied to the prac- 
tical work of the machine shop. The solution then dis- 
covered was only moderately satisfactory; but the incident 
meant much for scientific management, for from 1887 
until the present day Mr. Gantt has, with few interrup- 
tions, spent all of his time in the service of this system. 

Gantt's contact with Taylor was cut short in the eighties, 
and was only intermittent in the varied work of the next ten 
years. It was renewed again in the completest manner when 
in March, 1899, Taylor had Gantt called to Bethlehem. Be- 
tween 1899 and 1902, one of Gantt's duties at Bethlehem 
was to help another aid of Taylor, Carl G. Barth, in his 
development of the slide rule, a device which solved with 
remarkable ease the problem which in the eighties Gantt 
had by himself only partially disposed of. The main credit 
for the slide rule belongs, however, to Barth ; Gantt regards 
as his own greatest achievement of the period the develop- 
^'ment of "Task Work with a Bonus." 

The story runs that, after about two years of careful 
investigation in the machine shop at Bethlehem and the 
gradual adoption of many notable improvements, it was 

1 1887 to 1893. 



367] LIVES OF THE LEADERS 93 

evident that operations could be performed a great deal 
faster than the men had as yet been induced to work. But 
the management hesitated to force production up to the 
then possible standard through the introduction of the dif- 
ferential rate, for this would mean the establishment, upon 
the basis of imperfect methods, of piece-rates which could 
never be cut. They wished first to carry the process of 
improvement somewhat further. Accordingly, as a tem- 
porary expedient, Mr. Gantt, on March 11, 1901, proposed 
that the establishment offer a daily bonus of fifty cents to 
whoever should perform all the tasks set down on his in- 
struction card — thus substituting a very flexible standard 
of work for the rigid piece-work system. 

This was at first regarded as only a temporary measure, 
but by a later amendment the bonus system was adapted 
for permanent use. It was made to offer not only a re- 
ward for the completion of the task in the allotted time, 
but also an additional inducement to those who were able 
to do still better. It was made to consist in giving to all 
workers their day rate, but to the men who finished their 
tasks in the time set or less, pay for the number of hours 
allotted pltis a certain additional time (for instance, for a 
three hours' task, four hours' pay), — this same number 
of hours pay to be always given for work, whether fin- 
ished in standard time or less. Thus the system is, for the 
man who is accustomed to perform his tasks or more, the 
exact equivalent of piece-work. 

The bonus system — whether it be of the original type 
(designed only for temporary use) or of the amended 
variety (suited to become a part of the permanent system) 
— is like the differential-rate system in this, that they both 
make a complete study of the possibilities of work, and 
then give the man who performs a good day's task a higher 



94 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [368 

rate of pay than is customary in the trade. The original 
type of bonus differs from the differential rate in that the 
former involves no creation of unalterable piece-rates. The 
amended bonus system is more flexible than the differential 
rate, in that if it be so desired different men can be allowed 
varying amounts of pay for the same work — by simply 
basing their remuneration on higher or lower day rates. ^ 
Both the new varieties depart from the old path in that 
they give the regular day's pay to learners and others who 
fall short of the standard. 

Mr. Gantt lays considerable stress on a supplementary 
feature adopted at the suggestion of the machine-shop 
superintendent, Mr. Earle, by which the boss is paid a small 
bonus for each of his men who earns a bonus. In addi- 
tion, a second bonus is given if every one of the sub- 
ordinates is successful. These devices are designed to 
make the boss deal fairly with all in his assignment of 
work, and especially vigilant in removing difficulties from 
the paths of the weaker men. 

Immediately after its suggestion, the task and bonus 
system was put into operation; it was at once recognized 
as valuable, and is now said to have very nearly displaced 
the differential rate. 

But to return tO' the career of Mr. Gantt — a change hav- 
ing been made in the management of the Bethlehem Steel 
Company, he left their employ in 1902, and entered the 
profession of consulting engineer; in this he is still en- 
gaged. A partial list of the plants in which he has done 
rriore or less work would include the American Locomo- 
tive Company, the Canadian Pacific railway, the Sayle's 
bleacheries, the works of Joseph Bancroft at Wilmington, 

* This is almost (though not quite) as true of the plan which Mr. 
Gantt first proposed. 



369] 



LIVES OF THE LEADERS 



95 



the Brighton mills, and the Cheney silk mills/ His great- 
est achievement thus far has been in the plant of the 
Union Typewriter Company ; ^ of still greater promise — 
though only recently developed to any considerable scale — 
is his work for the Westinghouse Electric Company.^ It 
should be said that in very few of these plants has Mr. 
Gantt installed his system in its entirety, and that in many 
of them his work was done at a period when he had not 
developed his own ideas as completely as he has at present. 

We have seen that Gantt's greatest contribution to the 
method of scientific management is a very mild and easily 
introduced wage system, and that he has had an unusually 
wide experience in reorganizing factories (the number and 
importance of which the above list only suggests). The 
key to his success is a disposition to adjust his course to 
the practical aspects of whatever situation confronts him. 
Thus — 

When an Obstacle Appears 

Taylor's course was to plough Sometimes, indeed, Gantt does 

right through. not reach his original goal, but de- 

But Gantt's ... is to adapt him- cides on a new one. 
self most easily to the situation. 





As Illustrated by a Friend As Modified by Gantt, 

of the Two Men Himself 

^ Considerable interest has been shown in scientific-management's 
early — though only partial — installation in the works of the Symonds 
RolHng Machine Company, where Mr. Gantt was at the time superin- 
tendent. See supra, p. 79 ; and infra, p. 124. 

2 Makers of Remington, Monarch, and Smith-Premier Typewriters. 

3 " When scientific management is completely established at the West- 
inghouse plant," writes a thoroughly informed and impartial observer, 
" its effect will be more far-reaching than the effects of any work that 
has been heretofore done." 



96 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^-tq 

Mr. Gantt regards every factory as a law unto itself. 
His idea of scientific management is not that of one mold, 
which all factory organizations must be warped to fit; but 
as he sees it, there are as many distinct scientific manage- 
ments as there are different shops. By many who ought to 
know, Gantt is regarded as the strongest man in the scien- 
tific-management movement. He is said to be the man 
who is getting results.^ 

3. CARL G. BARTH 

Carl G. Barth, though perhaps a few months the senior 
of Gantt, and an acquaintance of Taylor since the middle 
eighties, did not come into actual touch with scientific 
management until 1899. His earlier training was acquired 
in his native Norway, and consisted of the equivalent of a 
high-school education, followed by a technical course last- 
ing a year and a half; and then four years practical ex- 
perience, of which the first two were spent as an apprentice 
in the navy-yard boiler and machine shops, and the second 
two in teaching mathematics and mechanical drawing in- 
terspersed for a time with service in the superintendent-of- 
the-yard's office. 

As a youth of about twenty-one, Barth emigrated to 
America, and found employment in the drawing-room of 
William Sellers & Company, of Philadelphia. With this 
concern he remained (excepting a short intermission) for 
fourteen successive years, at the end of which period he 
was occupying the position of chief designer of machin- 
.ery on a salary of $3,000. During most of this time Barth 

* Mr. Gantt's leading works are : " A Bonus System for Rewarding 
Labor" (Dec, 1901), "A Graphical Daily Balance in Manufacture" 
(i903)> and "Training of Workmen" (1908) — the three foregoing being 
found in the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical En- 
gineers; his book, Work, Wages and Profits (1910 and new editions) ; 
and various periodical contributions. 



371 ] LIVES OF THE LEADERS gy 

had been devoting his odd hours to teaching: for six 
years meeting mechanical-drawing classes at the Franklin 
Institute on some evenings of the week and private pupils 
in mathematics on the others ; and then for two years con- 
ducting a private evening school of his own. But now a 
taste for a career as a professor of engineering was rapidly 
developing; and in order to equip himself for such a posi- 
tion, Barth first gave up evening work for pay, that he 
might improve his knowledge of engineering subjects. 
Shortly afterwards (in 1895) he left William Sellers & 
Company to accept the modest offer of a St. Louis con- 
cern,^ which would give experience in designing engines. 
After two years of rather versatile service here, and then 
three months spent in designing special machines for the 
St. Louis water commission, he was identified with the 
International Correspondence Schools for about a year and 
a half, and with the manual training and mathematical 
work of the Ethical Culture Schools of New York for a 
school year of nine months. 

In June, 1899, Taylor sought to avail himself of this 
technical equipment by bringing Barth to Bethlehem " to 
effect a more satisfactory solution for the mathematical 
problems connected with the art of cutting metals and its 
application to the every-day running of machine tools." ^ 
Barth not only solved this difficult mathematical problem 
in a few months by the invention of the slide rule, an in- 
vention whose far-reaching importance we have set forth 
elsewhere,^ but hn was from the first put in charge of the 
machines doing Taylor's experimental work. When all this 
was over with, he was made machine-shop engineer, and 

* The Rankin and Fritch Foundry and Machine Company. 
' Quotations from testimony of Barth before special House com- 
mittee. 

3 See supra, pp. 73-75, and 92. 



98 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT ^^,72 

given the duty, among other things, of " reconstructing 
and respeeding, repairs, and maintenance of all machinery 
and tools in their large machine shop." 

Though Barth at this time " paid but little attention to 
the general management side " of scientific management, 
he was very much interested in those features of the sys- 
tem with which his work brought him in special contact. 
The result has been that, since leaving the employ of the 
Bethlehem Steel Company in 1901, he has "practically 
busied [him] self with nothing else" than introducing the 
Taylor system into factories; and though afterwards he 
broadened out until he understood every side of scientific 
management, he still remains particularly efficient in those 
elements which center about the manipulation of machine 
tools. According to Gantt, he is the most expert of the 
scientific-management men in looking over and strengthen- 
ing the weak places in machines. According to Taylor,^ 
he is " the most accomplished of all the men engaged in 
this work " (installing the system as a whole), a man who 
has '' made a greater success of introducing scientific 
management into the difficult companies than any other 
single man." 

After leaving Bethlehem, Barth's first fifteen months 
were spent in investigating conditions in the plant of his 
old employer, William Sellers & Company, the work, how- 
ever, not being carried to completion. Mr. Barth then 
spent four years and a half introducing scientific manage- 
ment into the plant of the Link-Belt Company, where to 
begin with he had charge of only the mechanical features. 
After the first year, however, he was compelled to assume 
the burden of installing all the various sides of the system, 
— being enabled to do this through a certain amount of 

^ From correspondence dated Oct. 6, 1913. 



373] LIVES OF THE LEADERS ^g 

general and gratuitous direction on the part of Mr. Taylor. 
This superintendence was for a couple of years more or 
less regular, but later very limited. Simultaneously with 
the systematizing of the Link-Belt Company, Barth had 
charge of similar but even more important work in the 
plant of the Tabor Manufacturing Company, — also under 
the general guidance of Taylor. Here he had the valuable 
assistance during part of the time of H. K. Hathaway. 
The first job undertaken on Barth's own responsibility was 
at the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company's plant, 
where scientific management was introduced in the one de- 
partment (hoist) in which machine operations count for 
the most. Among other plants where Barth has installed 
more or less of w^hat he loyally calls the ^'Taylor System," 
are the Fairbanks Scale Company; the Government Ar- 
senal at Watertown, with the aid of D. V. Merrick; and — 
what constitutes his present great undertaking — the Pull- 
man Company,^ of Chicago. 

4. HORACE K. HATHAWAY 

While Gantt is praised as a manager, and Barth as a 
mathematician and master of mechanical equipment, to 
Horace K. Hathav/ay belongs, according to Taylor, the 
credit for being the best all-around man in the movement. 
Mr. Hathaway is sixteen or seventeen years the junior of 
the two men just mentioned, being at the time of writing 
thirty-eight years old. He has no degree in engineering, 
but received his training during two years (1894-96) spent 
in a trade school (Williamson), and a year and a half spent 
as an apprentice with the Midvale Steel Company (1906-7). 
After completing his apprenticeship, he continued in the 
employ of the Midvale Steel company until 1902. He 
served about six months as a journeyman machinist, and 

^ It is rumored that Barth's work for the Pulhnan Company has 
been fruitful of revolutionary — though yet unpublished — discoveries. 



lOO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^-.^ 

then worked up in the organization through the positions 
of draftsman, inspector, and gang-boss, until he was fin- 
ally made foreman over all the tool-making and tool-keep- 
ing rooms in the plant. In 1902 he left Midvale to become 
superintendent for the Payne Engine Company, a small 
concern, with which he remained for two years. 

It was immediately following this that, in 1904, Hath- 
away first came in contact with scientific management,^ 
through being detailed to assist Barth install the "Taylor 
System " in the Philadelphia plant of the Link-Belt Com- 
pany. This first assignment was, however, comparatively 
unimportant. After only two or three months, Hathaway 
was transferred from the Link-Belt plant, and placed with 
the Tabor Manufacturing Company — at the time also in 
charge of Barth. Here, as the years went by, he gave so 
good an account of himself that he eventually became the 
most important person about the works. As vice-president 
of the company, he brought the organization to so high a 
degree of perfection that the Tabor plant has come to be 
regarded as the finest example of the success of scientific 
management. Its productivity, it is said, has been multi- 
plied by three. 

In addition to his continued participation in the affairs 
of the Tabor Manufacturing Company, Hathaway has 
more recently taken on the profession of consulting engi- 
neer, with headquarters in Philadelphia. Among the plants 
in which he has installed scientific management are the 
Acme Wire Company and, in cooperation with Morris L. 
Cooke, the Plimpton Press. ^ 

1 Taylor had left Midvale seven years before Hathaway's coming, 
and the system there had remained in the rudimentary form which 
constituted the highest development of the eighties. 

2 A further characterization of the work of Hathaway need not be 
giv€n here, since reference may be made to the reorganization of the 
Tabor Manufacturing Company as treated in the next chapter. 



375] LIVES OF THE LEADERS iqi 

5. MORRIS L. COOKE 

The special importance of the work of Morris L. Cooke 
is derived from the fact that it marks an extension of scien- 
tific management into new fields. We will pass over with- 
out comment Cooke's life as a mechanical engineer, and 
even that part of his career which had to do with the in- 
troduction of scientific management into printing/ in order 
that we may come at once to the two unique lines along 
which he has distinguished himself. 

The first of these undertakings grew out of the decision 
of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach- 
ing to get a man familiar with modern business manage- 
ment to estimate the cost and output of leading American 
universities. The man commissioned to make this study 
was Cooke; the field selected for investigation comprised 
the various departments of physics; the institutions visited 
were Columbia, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, Toronto, Wisconsin, Haverford, Princeton, and 
Williams. Though Cooke's 134-page report, published in 
19 10 as Bulletin Number Five of the Carnegie Foundation, 
contains various valuable recommendations in regard to 
the strictly financial and business relations of the univer- 
sity, these cannot be discussed here. Our one interest at 
this time is in pointing out certain passages in which Cooke 
— who is a staunch Taylor man — tries to apply scientific 
management to the universities' central educational end. 

Corresponding roughly to what we have termed the first 
phase of scientific management — which means in industrial 
plants the apportioning of scientifically determined tasks 
among all the workers — Cooke has utilized a standard for 
gauging the productivity of the respective departments of 
physics. His unit of measurement is the student hour — 

1 In the Plimpton Press (with Hathaway) ; and the Forbes Litho- 
graph Company. 



102 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [3^5 

that is, one hour spent by one student under direction — 
whether it be in the lecture or recitation room, or in the 
laboratory. The total output in student hours is easily ob- 
tained by multiplying the number of hours devoted to each 
course by the number of students registered therein, and 
then adding the products together. The unit cost of in- 
struction is calculated by dividing this total into the aggre- 
gate expense of the department. It is not claimed that this 
method furnishes complete data for deciding whether or 
not any particular work pays, as it does not take into 
account the value of the courses offered, or the relative 
quality of the instruction under different men or in various 
institutions; but Mr. Cooke does think that along with 
other considerations the exact cost of operation per unit 
of output is worth knowing. He finds that, of the institu- 
tions studied, Columbia, Harvard, and Haverford were 
spending the greatest sums per student hour in their re- 
spective departments of physics ($1.08 in each), and Wis- 
consin the least ($0.60). While Cooke does not himself 
attempt the " setting of a task " for university men, at 
some points he makes suggestions along that line. For 
instance, he says that if the student hour be used as a basis 
for determining what shall constitute a term's teaching, it 
might be weighted so that a lecture hour would count as 
three where a laboratory hour would be valued as one. 
The student hour, it should be said, is advanced as a use- 
ful unit for undergraduate teaching only, and is not ad- 
vanced as applicable to graduate or research work. 

Corresponding to the second phase of commercial scien- 
tific management, which aims to improve the methods of 
work, Mr. Cooke speaks with less hesitation. He regards 
as the cardinal principle in university administration the 
careful arrangement of the work so that the unusually able 
and highly valuable men who make up the ranks of pro- 



2^yj-\ LIVES OF THE LEADERS 103 

fessors may specialize in the important fields for which 
they are peculiarly qualified. Thus it seemed to him a great 
waste when, ''during the interviews which [he] had with 
college professors, he found them spending time in taking- 
inventories, keeping track of appropriations, mimeograph- 
ing examination papers and handling routine correspond- 
ence " ; and he also finds fault with their being given the 
management of buildings. Part of this work could be 
delegated to clerks, and much of it could be done more 
efficiently by central administrative departments, that would 
look after special functions for the university as a whole. 
A more radical suggestion is that the institution assist in 
the actual instruction; it is proposed that standard lecture 
notes be worked up by men specially commissioned for the 
purpose; and that these be used as common tools by all 
lecturers covering the subject. Such details as the more 
complete utilization of rooms, the placing of lecture halls 
used by large numbers of persons on the first floor (instead 
of museums), and the designing of buildings, come in for 
considerable attention. 

But the greatest stress of Cooke's report is on the organ- 
ization aspect. After reviewing the so-called one-man type 
of administration, which he finds is now in rare use, and 
criticizing the prevalent system of committee management, 
which he censures as giving too much autonomy to the de- 
partments and too little authority to either the president 
of the university or the department heads, Cooke offers as 
his leading suggestion for the improvement of academic 
efficiency the adoption of ''functional management." In a 
machine shop, functional management means the appoint- 
ment of some eight bosses, each of whom looks after some 
special phase of the work; in a university, functional man- 
agement would mean the splitting-up of the manifold 
duties of administration — and perhaps even of instruction 



I04 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^-rg 

and student guidance — into some ten or a hundred func- 
tions, in each of which one person would be the supreme 
authority. To illustrate : we may take Cooke's extreme 
example, 

a single individual personally assume the direction of a large 
building including laboratories, machine shops, power plants, 
etc. ; maintain order and discipline among seven hundred at 
times boisterous spirits; direct and inspire the teaching force 
of a score of rather unusually able men; lecture on the most 
attenuated physical theories ; keep in touch with a large body 
of graduates ; carry on research work, etc. 

From such a man, overloaded with duties which he cannot 
possibly perform with efficiency, Cooke would take away 
all but a few functions^ — as he would also from committees 
in which management has been similarly centralized. A 
large part of the administrative work — such as purchasing, 
the supervision of buildings and grounds, registration, and 
even discipline^ — could be done for all the departments by 
central agencies — as a few, but not many, of the institu- 
tions studied had already begun to do; and the other func- 
tions could be divided up among the men of the depart- 
ment, segregating and safeguarding to each person that 
type of work for which he alone is perhaps best qualified. 

This treatment of Mr. Cooke's report has been intro- 
duced, not only to give the reader a basis for judgment as 
to how far scientific management does or does not offer 
new or valuable suggestions for the organization of edu- 
cation and the other larger social activities, but also in 
order that — for those who are more familiar with college 
than with factory life — the principles of scientific manage- 
ment may be brought closer home. The significance of the 
system becomes apparent, for instance, when Cooke com- 
pares the University of Toronto favorably with Harvard, 



379] LIVES OF THE LEADERS 105 

in that in the former less than 38 per cent of the total salary 
fund of the department of physics goes to men above the 
grade of instructor, while in Harvard the percentage is 
84. If the ideas of Taylor could be applied as thoroughly 
to undergraduate instruction at Harvard as they have been 
to some shops, it would mean that the bulk of the work — 
at least as far as standard courses are concerned — would 
be transferred from professors to instructors. That is, a 
system of standard lecture notes and a subdivision of re- 
sponsibility would enable less experienced and less capable 
men to obtain satisfactory results. Through scientific 
assignment of tasks based on a detailed analysis of just 
what these instructors did with their time, schedules would 
be drawn up which would greatly increase the number of 
student hours per individual, the instructors being compen- 
sated by an increase in pay. To complete the analog}^, there 
would be substituted for the president, deans, and heads 
of departments, a large planning department, composed of 
the abler professors and administrators, who would in their 
respective spheres direct the machinery of education. The 
theory would be: first, that the general good would be 
promoted by an advance in the technique of organization 
which would permit the replacement of the original road- 
makers by men of less force and capacity, men who would 
be cheaper, who would turn out more work, and who 
would be perhaps as efficient as those of the earlier day; 
and second, that in no case would the individual welfare 
be jeopardized, as the abler professors might turn to other 
fields, and their successors would find in the new conditions 
better opportunities than would be open elsewhere. Cooke 
has not suggested that things be carried to this extreme in 
education, but something very similar has been done in 
some of the trades, and perhaps the drawing of the picture 
will help to an understanding as to why most managers 



I06 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [380 

and many skilled artisans are cautious about putting them- 
selves under scientific management. 

The second opportunity of Morris L. Cooke to extend 
the application of scientific management into new fields 
occurred when he was made director of public works for 
the city of Philadelphia. During 1912, the first year of 
his administration, it was claimed that a reduction of 
$750,000 was effected in the expenses of the department. 
A study of his report shows that in this first year the 
greater part of his improvements were such as any capable 
business man might have made. However, a few of the 
distinctive features of scientific management had already 
made their appearance, as, for instance, in the setting of 
tasks for street cleaners.^ 

6. SANFORD E. THOMPSON 

Sanford E. Thompson, referred to by Taylor ^ as " per- 
haps the most experienced man in motion and time study 
in this country," was born in 1867, took the degree of 
C. E., and since 1885 has been engaged in practical civil 
and mechanical engineering. In 1895 he started to co- 
operate with Taylor in some of the latter's investigations, 

^ Cf. C. Bertrand Thompson's statement in the Quarterly Journal of 
Econofmcs, Feb., 1915 : " Owing to the peculiarities of the Philadelphia 
law, and the constant opposition of Councils and the previous almost 
inconceivably corrupt state of the department, it has not been possible 
to make a thorough application of most of the fundamental principles 
of scientific management. The results attained thus far, amounting to 
a saving of over $1,300,000, are due primarily to the injection of simple 
honesty into the department, and secondly to the utiHzation, so far as 
conditions would permit, of expert knowledge secured wherever it was 
obtainable." 

Mr. Cooke spent a year and a half reorganizing the administration! 
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and also played an 
important part in making the arrangements for the Tuck School Con- 
ference on scientific management. 

' Principles of Scientific Management, p. 88. 



381] LIVES OF THE LEADERS 107 

and in 1896 and the years following undertook on his own 
responsibility an exhaustive study of the time required to 
do various work connected with the building trades. In 
six years he made a complete study of eight of the most 
important: excavation, masonry, bricklaying (including 
sewer-work and paving), carpentry, concrete and cement 
work, lathing and plastering, slating and roofing, and rock 
quarrying. 

Thompson's method is to split up jobs as a whole into 
very minute elements. Complicated mathematical formulas 
tell him just how long it should take under various condi- 
tions to throw a single shovelful of earth. Likewise, the 
number of seconds required to dump a wheel-barrow, to 
walk one foot, to drive one nail, to place one cleat, and to 
do a thousand other things, are all obtained by stop-watch 
analysis and carefully recorded. As a result, a contractor 
can estimate much more exactly than under the old system 
how much it will cost to complete a given work, and a 
foreman can hold his men responsible for a full day's^ 
task. 

While the prime object of Thompson's work has been 
the effective handling of men and the accurate estimation 
of costs, his studies have incidentally increased the effi- 
ciency of effort. 

In connection with the making of forms [in concrete con- 
struction], for example, it was found by time study that a 
certain type of hammer was better than any other. It was 
found that a certain method of erecting the forms was con- 
siderably cheaper than any other plan. It was found that the 
number and size of nails, which ordinarily varied with each 
individual carpenter, could be fixed by definite standards to 
avoid waste in time and materials. It was found that there 
were certain methods of handling the lumber which were 
cheaper than any other way. It was shown by actual figures 



I08 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [382 

how much saving could be accompHshed by furnishing labor- 
ers to do all of the heavy work so that the carpenters could 
stick to their job of carpentry, ^ 

Thompson is credited by Taylor with having developed 
in the course of his studies implements for taking observa- 
tions v^hich are in many respects the best in use. He was 
the man immediately in charge of the motion-study analysis 
of bicycle-ball inspection in the plant of the Symonds Roll- 
ing Machine Company. He is now in private practice as a 
consulting engineer making a specialty of concrete and re- 
inforced concrete design, construction, and tests. His chief 
works are: Concrete, Plain and Reinforced (1905), and 
Concrete Costs (1911), both written jointly with Taylor. 

7. FRANK B. GILBRETH 

Of Frank B. Gilbreth and Harrington Emerson — the 
last men whose work we will discuss in detail — it may be 
said that, with the possible exception of Frederick W. Tay- 
lor, they have been far more successful than any others in 
turning towards scientific management the interest of the 
^general public.^ 

Gilbreth was born in 1868, completed his formal educa- 
tion with graduation from the English High School of 
Boston in 1885, went into business, and in the course of 
time became established as a successful contracting engineer 
engaged in large-scale undertakings. Between 1895 and 
1904 his main office was in Boston; since 1904, in New 
York City. It was not until about 1906 ^ that, having 

1 Sanford E. Thompson, " Time-Study and Task Work," in Journal 
of Political Economy, May, 1913, p. 380. 

' The most successful of the scientific-management men. Mr. Bran- 
deis' all-important role should not be forgotten. 

3 In July, 1910, Mr. Taylor spoke of the date as being " some four 
years " earlier. 



383] LIVES OF THE LEADERS 109 

read Taylor's papers on ''Shop Management" and "On the 
Art of Cutting Metals," and having conferred with their 
author personally, Gilbreth made his first attempt in the 
field of scientific management. This consisted in a reor- 
ganization of bricklaying, an undertaking whose brilliant 
execution was to win for him a national reputation and to 
constitute with his later work one of the most fascinating 
chapters in the history of scientific management. 

Gilbreth, following in the footsteps of all other scientific- 
management leaders, incorporated in his fully-developed 
bricklaying system an ingenious provision by which the 
number of bricks laid by each man might be easily calcu- 
lated ; he provided that those individuals who should come 
up to a certain high standard should receive wages 25 or 
30 per cent higher than the wages common among other 
bricklayers in the vicinity. 

But it should be stated at the outset that the real em- 
phasis in Gilbreth's scientific management, and that which 
from first to last has given to it its distinctive note, is 
on constructive motion study — that is, the scientific anal- 
ysis of the motions that go into work, with the idea of 
eliminating avoidable effort. We have seen that the orig- 
inal object of Taylor, Thompson, and most of the others 
was to discover how much men could do if they tried, 
and that their development of new methods of work, 
though important, was incidental. In the paragraphs that 
follow, we shall see that of Gilbreth it would be more fit- 
ting to say that he started out in the first place with the 
object of devising new and better methods, and that his 
introduction of management features like the task and 
bonus was chiefly to secure obedience to directions. 

To present some of the more salient motion and fatigue- 
saving features of the Gilbreth system of bricklaying, it 
may be noted in the first place that the obvious waste of 



no SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [384 

making a man bend over, and then raise the weight of his 
body, every time he has to pick up a brick — a thousand 
times or more a day — was eliminated by arranging adjust- 
able scaffolds and so piling up the brick that there would 
be between the body of the workman, the height of the 
wall, and the height of the brick supply and mortar-box, 
just that relation which would permit the easiest, most 
upright work. In the second place, there was taken away 
from the high-priced bricklayers and turned over to low- 
priced laborers the simple work of arranging the bricks 
with their top-sides up. Gilbreth tells us that the top of a 
hand-made brick is always a little wider and rougher than 
the bottom, and that under ordinary systems the bricklayer 
"flops" each brick over in his hand a time or two to make 
sure which is the right side. This operation was elimi- 
nated under the new system, for the bricks were properly 
arranged by the low-priced helpers on " packets " holding 
eighteen ^ each, so that they might be easily grabbed by 
the craftsman and inserted without examination into the 
wall. Thirdly, it may be noted that the mortar was tem- 
pered so carefully that the bricks could be thrust into place 
by a simple shove and without the usual tap of the trowel. 
In the above, as well as in many other ways, the work 
of bricklaying was so simplified that the eighteen motions 
formerly thought necessary to place a brick were reduced 
tO' four and a half, and indeed in one case to two. Those 
which remained were made as simple and effective as 
thorough study could make them. The final result was that 
Gilbreth's men, who had formerly worked to their limit to 
lay 1000 bricks a day, were able after a short period of in- 
struction to reach a daily output of 2,700. Gilbreth erected 
a number of buildings in accordance with this plan, and 

* Eighteen bricks weigh about ninety-two pounds, which, it was dis- 
covered at Bethlehem, constitute a laborer's most efficient load. 



385] LIVES OF THE LEADERS m 

still holds patents covering several of the mechanical fea- 
tures. 

Not long after the perfection of the system, however, its 
inventor abandoned the contracting business altogether, and 
began to turn his entire energy towards introducing scien- 
tific management into factories. The best example of what 
Gilbreth has accomplished along this new line is afforded 
by the New England Butt Company, a concern engaged in 
the manufacture of rope-making machinery, at Providence, 
Rhode Island. The system there installed may be said to 
be patterned after that in use in the plant of the Tabor 
Manufacturing Company, differing from the latter chiefly 
in the greater attention that has been given to contriving 
many small conveniences which lighten the work. We 
need, therefore, not describe Gilbreth's methods in detail, 
but will present only those features which are his own dis- 
tinct contribution to management technique. He has made, 
two notable contributions, of which the first is micro- 
motion study. 

Prior to the introduction of micro-motion study, the best 
instrument available for timing motions was the stop watch. 
But there is a certain limit of refinement beyond which it 
is impossible to split up motions by this method. By timing 
a repeated sequence, sO' that first one group of motions is 
included and then another, it is indeed possible to obtain 
accurate records of intervals of time, too fleeting to be 
measured by themselves. Nevertheless, the system is not 
convenient for the effective analysis of such operations as, 
for instance, the folding of a handkerchief. Accordingly, 
for work of this character Gilbreth uses a motion-picture 
apparatus, including in the field of vision a large-faced 
clock, the rapid movements of whose hands record very 
minute subdivisions of a minute. Behind the subject is a 
network of lines spaced at regular distances as on a cross- 



112 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [385 

section paper, against which as a background the dimen- 
sions of a motion can be read off. After the record has 
been obtained, it is possible to go over the film with a mag- 
nify ing-glass, and decide at leisure just how long and over 
exactly what space exceedingly rapid motions have ex- 
tended. Thus even in the case of the nimblest work, the 
micro-motion-study expert can detect false motions, and tell 
the worker which of his various ways of working are the 
most efficient. The invention is more brilliant than widely 
applicable, and up to a recent date has received more atten- 
tion in the magazines than in the workshop. 

By a later invention of Gilbreth's, also tried out at the 
New England Butt Company's plant, a record of the path 
of a motion is made on a photographic plate by fastening 
a small electric bulb on the subject's finger. By using a 
stereoscopic camera, space in three dimensions is shown; 
by making the bulb flash light only at regular intervals, the 
path becomes a succession of dots, which indicate the time 
consumed. 

In conclusion : We have seen that the special field of Gil- 
breth is not the solving of engineering and other technical 
problems of manufacturing, nor is he interested primarily 
in systems of management, but his stronghold is construc- 
tive motion study. Into the study of this latter subject he 
has thrown himself with all the ardor of a strenuous nature ; 
and, not limiting himself to those " bread and butter " 
achievements that bring immediate financial results, he has 
striven to apply motion study to all manner of activities. 
Thus, in New York hospitals he attempted a micro-motion- 
study analysis of surgical operations; and again we learn 
that he is investigating the muscular activity that underlies 
the " singing tone " of the skilled musician. Indeed, the 
elaborateness of Gilbreth's methods and the restlessness of 
his ambition proclaim the appearance of the scientist in a 



2^gy] LIVES GF THE LEADERS 113 

profession where most men would say that commercial 
considerations alone should rule. 

Among Gilbreth's works are his Field System (1908), 
Concrete System (1908), and Bricklaying System (1909). 
Motion Study (1911) approaches the subject from many 
interesting points of view; Gilbreth's Primer of Scientific 
Management (1912) contains the clearest explanation of 
this system that has yet appeared. 

8. HARRINGTON EMERSON 

In the case of each of the men whom we have thus far 
considered, the original impulse along the path of scientific 
management was derived without question directly from 
Frederick Winslow Taylor. When, however, we come to 
the career of Harrington Emerson, we pass from the im- 
mediate Taylor group, and find ourselves in the presence 
of a man who has been under more complex influences. 

Harrington Emerson, the son of a professor of political 
economy, was born in Trenton, New Jersey, but spent his 
youth in Europe. It is to French character, and to German 
military efficiency as evidenced before his eyes in the con- 
duct of the Franco-Prussian war, that Emerson attributes 
his present strongest ideal — the setting of precise standards. 
His admiration for systematic method and perfect cooper- 
ation was further strengthened by studies under a Euro- 
pean music-teacher, by observation of the remarkable re- 
sults obtained by breeders of fine horses, and by contact 
with A. B. Smith, a skilful railroad surveyor. 

Emerson's earlier efforts in the field of systematizing 
management were in railway shops — his entry into the pro- 
fession of reorganizing miscellaneous industrial plants 
being a later development. He tells us ^ that in 1895 he 

1 Correspondence dated Sept. 27, 1913. 



114 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [383 

" began a series of rapid surveys of American industrial 
plants, determining what their product and costs were com- 
pared to what they ought to be. In 1900 [he] checked up 
minutely the losses occurring in the use of materials. In 
1902 [he] planned, scheduled and despatched work through 
a large factory." Of all Emerson's undertakings, how- 
ever, that which has attracted the most attention was his 
" betterment work " introduced into the shops of the 
Santa Fe railway during three years beginning in 1904, a 
story which we will treat briefly in the next chapter. He 
has installed his system partially, though in no instance 
completely, in " some 200 different plants from Alaska to 
Mexico, from Louisiana to Canada, from Southern Cali- 
fornia to Maine." ^ At present his activity is carried on 
through the Emerson Company, an organization which 
employs between thirty and forty efficiency specialists. 

To take up Emerson's distinguishing characteristics, in 
the first place, he calls his system '' efficiency " rather than 
" scientific management." The distinction, though mainly 
one of words, is not without some significance. " Effi- 
ciency " is the relation between what is accomplished and 
what might be accomplished; to secure it one strives to 
introduce the best obtainable methods, to compare produc- 
tivity in different plants and bring all up to the one highest 
standard. In the case of " scientific management," on the 
other hand, the emphasis is not so much on producing goods 
as cheaply in this plant as in that one, but rather the aim is 
to do well from an absolute viewpoint. Thus " scientific 
management " may mean creation; while " efficiency " con- 
templates simply a comparison of costs in different plants, 
and a choosing of the one best system already in use; how- 
ever, the two ideas, far from being mutually exclusive, are 

1 Correspondence dated Sept. 27, 191 3. 



389] LIVES OF THE LEADERS 115 

but complementary aspects of the same movement, the for- 
mer being invention, the latter application. 

In the second place, Emerson opposes functional man- 
agement with its numerous heads, and substitutes for it the 
" line and staff " idea, under which there is but one boss 
(the line). The functional experts (or staff) whom Emer- 
son employs are not executive officers, but simply advise 
the single responsible authority; and it is the latter who 
puts all plans into practice through command over his 
" line " subordinates. The idea is to avoid creating too 
many bosses, and yet operate under expert advice. 

In the third place, Emerson uses a wage system which 
bases remuneration partly upon the " efficiency per cent " 
of the employee. A standard task is set on the basis of 
time-study analysis, and the workman who just completes 
the same in the allotted time is credited with 100 per cent 
efficiency. Efficiency may thus be reckoned as below, above, 
or at 100 per cent. Although everyone receives his day rate, 
which is supposed to be a normal compensation when com- 
pared with prevailing w^ages, a man who cannot attain 66.7 
per cent efficiency is regarded as subnormal and is in danger 
of discharge. At 67 per cent a small bonus is paid, which 
grows in size until at 90 per cent efficiency it reaches 10 
per cent. Above this point one per cent in bonus is added 
for each additional one per cent gain in efficiency. Emer- 
son has thus developed a wage system which is in its results 
practically the same as Gantt's " task and bonus " plan, 
except that under the Gantt system no bonus is paid until 
a man comes up to standard performance, in the hope that 
the large increase then suddenly granted will bring all up 
to a common productivity. 

In general, Emerson's methods are flexible, rather than 
stereotyped ; his time studies and standards are approximate 
rather than exhaustively exact; and he relies much on the 



1 1 6 SCIENTIFIC MAN A CEMENT [ ^go 

self-direction of his subordinates. His company strives for 
the big gains that may be easily attained, and will accept a 
hurry order if funds for complete reorganization are lack- 
ing. 

Harrington Emerson is nearly three years older than 
Frederick W. Taylor ; he did not meet the latter until com- 
paratively late (probably not much before 1900)/ and the 
two never worked together.^ Emerson w^as present, how- 
ever, when Taylor's "Shop Management" was read, in 1903, 
and has done almost all of his mature work in the light (if 
he chose to use it) of that exposition. As regards his gen- 
eral thought, we have seen that Emerson has received 
stimuli from many sources ; but as concerns the application 
of efficiency to industrial plants, there is good ground for 
believing that he is much more deeply indebted to Taylor 
than to any other. Indeed, men well acquainted with both 
have told us that Emerson was once accustomed to refer 
to Taylor as the source of his ideas: Taylor he regarded 
as trying to do too much, as being in advance of his time; 
it was he, Emerson, who, by rendering lofty projects 
more practical, was able to achieve results. On the other 
hand, it cannot be denied that Emerson has brought into 
the field a great deal of original force. He may have 
adopted some of Taylor's ideas; but if so, his conduct is 
similar to the appropriation which every man makes of any 
scheme that appeals to him as useful; and beyond this, he 
has at the same time combined them with so many ideas 
derived from other sources that his resulting philosophical 

^ In 1912 Emerson referred to his introduction to Taylor as having 
occurred some ten years earlier. However it must have been at least 
twelve years, as he writes of a conversation which occurred between 
them in 1900. 

' Some members of the present Taylor group started under Emerson 
— as F. A. Parkhurst. We know of an active engineer, formerly with 
Emerson, who tells us that he now follows Gantt's methods. 



391 ] LIVES OF THE LEADERS ny 

system is a truly original contribution to the subject. Cer- 
tainly in his books he has expressed himself in a way which 
is in many respects far more effective than the style of the 
other scientific-management or efficiency men. 

In fact, Emerson has done more than any other single | 
man to popularize the subject of scientific management.! 
His statement that the railroads could save $1,000,000 a 
day by introducing efficiency methods was the keynote 
which started the present interest in the subject. His books, 
Efficiency (a reprint in 191 1 of periodical contributions of 
1908 and 1909), and The Twelve Principles of Efficiency 
(1912), taken with his magazine articles and addresses, 
have perhaps done more than anything else to make " effi- 
ciency " a household word. 

9. THE SCIENTIFIC-MANAGEMENT MEN AS A BODY 

As regards the other scientific-management men, atten- 
tion should at least be called to Frederick A. Parkhurst, 
author of Applied Metftods of Scientific Management; to 
Dr. Hollis Godfrey, scientist and contributor to the Atlantic 
Montfily, now president of Drexel Institute; to Dwight V. 
Merrick, declared by one well-informed authority to be at 
present the most skilled expert in time study, who at one 
time worked for the Link-Belt Company, then assisted 
Carl G. Barth install scientific management in the Water- 
town Arsenal, and is now with the H. H. Franklin Manu- 
facturing Company; to Charles Day, of Day & Zimmer- 
man, prominent consulting engineers of Philadelphia, the 
author of Industrial Plants; to C. J. Morrison, formerly 
with Harrington Emerson, but now of the firm of Frog- 
gatt, Morrison & Company, which firm has introduced the 
methods of scientific management into some thirty-two 
plants ; to Henry V. Sheel, of the Brighton mills ; to Henry 
P. Kendall, of the Plimpton Press; to William Kent, and 



Il8 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [392 

Robert T. Kent, consulting engineers and editors of In- 
dustrial Engineering] and to Charles W. Mixter, whO' 
claims to have offered the first college work on scientific 
management some seven or eight years ago, and who has 
more recently entered the active work. Among the promi- 
nent manufacturers who have taken up the scientific-man- 
agement movement, two in particular are men of distinc- 
tion: Henry R. Towne, president of the Yale & Towne 
Manufacturing Company, and James M. Dodge, president 
of the board of directors of the Link-Belt Company. 

To put the strength of the scientific-management move- 
ment in more definite terms: We may first note that the 
Society for the Promotion of the Science of Management, 
whose membership is practically a roll of the leading Tay- 
lor men, numbers about seventy-five. Again, the Efficiency 
Society Incorporated started to compile a list of all the 
men professionally engaged in reorganizing industrial en- 
terprises; and this roll had at our last count reached one 
hundred and eighty. As this list made no pretense of being 
complete — in fact, some very prominent names had not yet 
been placed upon it — it is probable that the actual number 
of persons whose entire time is devoted to introducing 
some type of " efficiency " is very much greater than one 
hundred and eighty. If, finally, there be added in, all the 
factory managers who are trying to introduce improved 
methods for themselves, the extent of the broader scien- 
tific-management movement is seen to be bordering on the 
immeasurable. 

While many of this larger group are only ordinary in 
ability, and probably lack knowledge as to what scientific 
management really is, one is safe in saying that, at the 
fountain-head at least, the system is represented by earnest 
and capable men ; the sketches which have been given above 
prove this. But if further proof be needed, it is only nee- 



393] LIVES OF THE LEADERS ng 

essary to point out that three of the leaders in the scientific- 
management movement have been presidents of the Amer- 
ican Society of Mechanical Engineers (Taylor, Towne, and 
Dodge), and that, conversely, many of the most active 
officers and committeemen of that organization are iden- 
tified with, and throw their influence in favor of these new 
industrial ideas. Perhaps no other tribunal in America 
could by its approval add more prestige — at least as far as 
manufacturing technique is concerned — to the standing of 
scientific management. 

Such is the size and character of the scientific-manage- 
ment movement. In the next chapter we shall endeavor to 
ascertain to what extent the movement has to date altered 
the industrial world. 



CHAPTER V 

A Survey of the Trades and Plants in which Scien- 
tific Management Has Been Introduced 

I. THE present status OF THE HISTORIC ILLUSTRATIONS 
OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 

a. The Midvale Steel Company 

At the birthplace of scientific management, and the seat 
of its development from 1882 to 1889, the system is said 
to have remained static since Frederick W. Taylor left in 
the latter year; and though the ideas which constituted it 
in the eighties are still being applied, and, it is said, 
•nore successfully than ever before, Midvale has adopted 
none of the later features which have made the old scien- 
tific management seem but fragmentary. Midvale is one 
of America's three great armor plate-making plants, and 
produces heavy forgings of many types. 

b. The Bethlehem Steel Company 

Turning next to an examination of what has happened 
at Bethlehem, where innovations were made which were 
advertised for a decade — if not until the present time — as 
the most striking proof of what scientific management can 
accomplish, it may be said that the references all date back 
to work which was done between 1898 and 1901, or at the 
very latest, 1902. This is because the system installed 
there met with the disapproval of Charles M. Schwab when 
he came into control of the plant in September, 1901 ; 
120 [394 



395] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 121 

Taylor had at this time already retired; Barth left the 
same year, and Gantt in 1902. 

The status of scientific management at Bethlehem since 
1 90 1 is a controverted matter. The present owners say 
that they have rid themselves of Taylor and his ideas, and 
declare in their irritation that they ''don't want to hear 
anything more about scientific management." Gantt and 
his associates grow equally warm in expressing their views. 
They accuse Schwab of being an irreclaimable " driver " ; 
they say that though he pretended to repudiate the whole 
of their system, he really continued to enforce those fea- 
tures which aim to bring production up to the maximum, 
divorcing from the system, however, its essential principles 
of liberal pay and fair treatment. This policy, according 
to Taylor, did not work well : Although at first an attempt 
was made to do away with bonuses, " at the end of the 
month (so the foreman and the men told [Taylor]), Mr. 
Schwab was [all too] glad tO' put the premium back again, 
because the product of the shop had dropped to about one- 
half." ^ In spite of such warnings, Gantt says,^ Mr. 
Schwab continued to debase scientific-management's better 
ideals regarding the treatment of workmen, until there 
came the great strike of 19 10. Though Schwab is thus 
alleged to have wandered away from certain of the teach- 
ings of scientific management, it is claimed that on the 
whole his plant has retained the important features of the 
system. Thus we meet with conflicting testimony : that 
of the Bethlehem management that Taylor and his system 
have been " kicked out," and that of some of the opposing 

* Testimony of Taylor, Hearings before Special Committee of the 
House of Representatives to Investigate the Taylor and Other Systems 
of Shop Management, p. 1506. 

2 Work, Wages and Profits, p. 107. 



122 



SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 



[396 



party, who have revisited the works, and say that its essen- 
tials are in operation. 

Without venturing to pass judgment as to the truth of 
the charges against Mr. Schwab, there is good reason for 
beheving that a considerable portion of scientific manage- 
ment is to-day imbeded in the Bethlehem organization. 
Our authority is no other than a statement issued by the 
Bethlehem Steel Company itself, and constituting Appen- 
dix C of a Government Report on Strike at Bethlehem 
Steel Works, ^ prepared after the 19 10 trouble. This state- 
ment carefully explains that in its machine shops the time 
required to perform each operation entering into the work 
is determined by " observation " [elementary time study] ; 
that on the basis of this " standard information " a " man 
in charge of the rating " allows a proper time for the 
completion of each individual job [task-setting] ; and that 
for success a bonus of 20 per cent above a fair day rate is 
given, while if the task be completed in less than the stand- 
ard time, the gain is shared equally between the company 
and the workman [the Gantt " task and bonus " system, 
except that the Gantt plan gives all the gain to the work- 
man]. Finally, there is displayed a "work slip" [instruc- 
tion card] which with its detailed enumeration of opera- 
tions, directions as to regulation of machine, etc., looks for 
all the world as though it might have come out of Taylor's 
" Shop Management." Now, the Bethlehem Steel Com- 
pany has doubtless made changes during the last fourteen 
years; but the above-outlined statement certainly shows 
that, in the machine shops at least, their advancement has 
not carried them away from the general principles laid 
down by Taylor, Gantt, and Barth. 

As to the fate of the novel Bethlehem experiments in 



^ Sen. Doc. no. 521, 61 C, 2 S. 



397] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 123 

scientific pig-iron handling and shoveling/ the insight 
given by the contents of the last paragraph dispose one to 
credit the assertion of Taylor that as a matter of fact 
" they are still carting around forty tons of pig iron a day 
at Bethlehem " (his way of roughly indicating that the 
output is still approximating 47^^ instead of I2>4 tons) ; 
and to accept as a correct explanation his further state- 

^ The "science" of shoveling being one of the most interesting dis- 
coveries of the Bethlehem period, and not having come in for description 
before, it may be explained here that among its fundamentals are the 
selection of large scoops for the handling of light, and small shovels 
for the handling of heavy materials, so that the load will for every 
class of work approximate twenty-one pounds, which load experiment 
has shown to be the most efficient. Studies were made of the relative 
advantages of earth, wood, and iron surfaces underneath the pile. 
Workmen were instructed in the best way of pushing in their shovels, 
etc. The time required to throw to any given height or distance was 
brought under a formula, and tasks were set, based upon these dis- 
tances and the laws of human endurance. A personal record was kept 
of the work of each man, and for standard performance individuals 
were given substantial bonuses, so that the average earnings for all of 
the men rose about 60 per cent (from $1.15 to $1.88). That no time 
might be lost through having too many men in one place and too few 
in another, or through waiting between jobs, a central office was es- 
tablished from which " every laborer's work was planned out well in 
advance, and the workmen were all moved from place to place by the 
clerks with elaborate diagrams or maps of the yard before them." 
The results claimed for this system were a reduction of the force of 
yard laborers from between 400 and 600 to 140, an increase in the 
average number of tons handled per man per day from 16 to 59, and 
(Taylor assures us) beneficial effects on the workmen. The net sav- 
ings for the third year, after including in the costs "the office and 
tool-room expenses, and the wages of all labor superintendents, fore- 
men, clerks, time-study men, etc., are placed at $36,400, "and during 
the six months following, when all of the work of the yard was on 
task work, the saving was at the rate of between $75,000 and $80,000 
per year." (Principles of Scientifice Management, p. 71.) According 
to Taylor's testimony before the Industrial Relations Commission, 
1900 observations were made covering the shoveling of a single kind 
of material. 



124 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [398 

ment that, while he himself has not been back at Bethlehem, 
others who have say that shoveling is still carried on 
according to his methods/ 

If it should happen that we have reached an unwarranted 
conclusion, and the remnants of scientific management at 
Bethlehem are indeed unimportant, even then it would still 
be true that the historical movements which occurred there 
have a present-day standing. In that case it could be 
pointed out that the system there developed for machine 
shops has since been incorporated, along with new ideas, 
in other plants. Whether or not shoveling is now per- 
formed " scientifically " at Bethlehem, the art, Taylor as- 
sured us, has certainly been introduced elsewhere. For in- 
stance, glimpses of it are caught in the reports of General 
Crozier on the Watertown Arsenal. Finally, to illustrate 
the subtle manner in which scientific-management ideas 
may be transferred to new soil, data developed in the pig- 
iron work concerning the laws of human endurance have 
been applied to bricklaying. 

The investment in the Bethlehem Steel Company, includ- 
ing capital, funded debt, and surplus, is given in the Gov- 
ernment report referred to above, as over $40,000,000, the 
normal number of employees as about 8,300. The com- 
pany manufactures gun forgings, marine and general en- 
gine forgings, and heavy machinery and ordnance of every 
description. 

c. Bicycle-Ball-Bearing Inspection 

A different fate befell scientific management in the works 
of the Symonds Rolling Machine Company, of Fitchburg, 
Massachusetts, where during the bicycle craze more bicycle 

1 The statement in regard to shoveling was made direct to the writer ; 
the assertion in regard to pig-iron handling was made through a third 
party. 



399] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 125 

ball bearings were manufactured than in any other shop in 
the United States : the concern is no longer in existence. 
Although we are told that not much scientific management 
w^as introduced in this place, considerable publicity was 
given to the study of bicycle-ball inspection — as referred 
to in an earlier passage/ 

d. Bricklaying 

Since Gilbreth left the contracting business, it is not 
known that his bricklaying methods are being applied any- 
where in their entirety. He has noted, however, the use by 
others of various isolated features of his system — for in- 
stance, the '' packet " idea in carrying bricks. 

While the Gilbreth methods were in operation, they were 
hailed as the great example of cooperation between scien- 
tific management and the unions. Being himself a member 
of the Boston bricklayers' union, Gilbreth declared that he 
had after some difficulty overcome scruples about piece- 
work by paying the men a straight day rate, and then 
giving a bonus for reaching a certain high output. It 
should be noted that this cooperation was never in the 
form of a definite agreement. 

It is believed by some that Gilbreth abandoned the con- 
tracting business because this friendly relationship came to 
an end, that there were strikes, etc. The actual extent of 
trouble of this kind seems to have been a two-days' mix-up 
at Hudson Falls, New York, which proved to have been 
more of a misunderstanding within the labor organization 
itself than an affair of real seriousness. A letter received 

1 Page 79. Taylor had been engaged to systematize this plant, Gantt 
was general superintendent, and S. E. Thompson did the time-study 
work. 

According to C. Bertrand Thompson (" Scientific Management in 
Practice," Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 191 5) it was here 
that the system of functional foremen first reached its full development. 



126 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^qo 

from the corresponding secretary of one of the two Boston 
locals, replying to a request for information on the subject, 
speaks of no differences with Gilbreth other than the 
union's refusal to allow the use of the "fountain trowel." 
Nevertheless, labor's national leaders, who look forward to 
the possible consequences growing out of scientific manage- 
ment, are undeniably hostile to the new bricklaying. 

Gilbreth's relationship to organized labor in the field of 
bricklaying seems, therefore, to have consisted in ( i ) the 
convincing of individual union men that it was to their 
interest to work according to his system; (2) non-interfer- 
ence on the part of the local organizations; (3) moral 
opposition on the part of national leaders; and (4) the dis- 
appearance of the issue through Gilbreth's going into a 
more promising profession. 

e. The Santa Fe 

In May, 1904, because of labor troubles, Harrington 
Emerson was given the task of reorganizing a part of the 
Santa Fe railway system. His authority extended only to 
that one department known as the motive power depart- 
ment; and he was, therefore, concerned mainly with the 
maintenance and repair of locomotives, much of which 
work was centralized in shops at Topeka. Nevertheless, 
by the time Emerson had worked out from Topeka to the 
end of the 10,000 or so miles of road, his system was affect- 
ing 12,000 men, and he had a task upon his hands which 
took three years of time, and the assistance of a large staff 
of railway experts (in 1906, 31 were on the work). 

The cause of starting Emerson's "betterment work," 
as it was officially called, having been a strike, his first 
and most important aim was to establish a basis for per- 
manent harmony by introducing an " individual effort and 
bonus system." Increased supervision of the men was to 



40l] A SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS i2y 

be undertaken, and for good work special rewards were to 
be given. Accordingly, time studies were made (about 
4,000 by December, 1906), tasks were set, and bonuses 
offered. There were several distinguishing features which 
marked this phase of scientific management as it was in- 
troduced on the Santa Fe: First, extreme emphasis was 
laid on the individual character of the relations of men and 
management : " The schedule is a moral contract or agree- 
ment with the men as to a particular machine operation, 
rate of wages and time. Any change in men [etc.] calls for 
a new schedule." Second, there was a lack of insistence 
on the selection of unusual men : " The standard time set 
is reasonable, and one that can be reached without extra- 
ordinary effort; is, in fact, such time as a good foreman 
would demand." ^ And third, bonuses were paid to fore- 
men. Thus the Santa Fe management sought to make of 
its employees industrious, well-paid, and loyal workmen. 

But before actually setting tasks, it was necessary to 
study and standardize all tools and equipment, and this led 
in itself to important improvements. Specially notable 
was the improvement in the care of belting, this being taken 
out of the hands of the workmen and put into those of 
specialists, with a resulting saving of 70 per cent in the 
expense of belt maintenance. Perhaps the most interesting 
features which Emerson introduced were the various rout- 
ing and scheduling devices. All of the work in the machine 
shop was so arranged that it could be controlled from dis- 
patch-boards located in a central office; likewise on a bul- 
letin-board was indicated the progress in the repair of each 
locomotive. Most of the other changes — such as the cen- 
tralization of work at Topeka, and the introduction of im- 

^ Statements of Harrington Emerson, as printed in an editorial 
write-up entitled, " Betterment Work on the Santa Fe," American En- 
gineer and Railroad Journal, Dec, 1906. 



128 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [402 

proved methods of cost accounting — are beyond the pale 
of things which are distinctively " scientific management." 

It is agreed that the principles of scientific management 
were only part of them introduced on the Santa Fe. Never- 
theless the estimated savings were at the time put at enor- 
m.ous figures. Thus in the article from which the above 
quotations were taken, its writer estimated from figures 
contained in the president's annual report that during the 
fiscal year ending June 31, 1906, fully a million and a 
quarter of dollars were saved. Other critics were equally 
enthusiastic, and the work attracted a great deal of atten- 
tion throughout the country. 

Since Emerson's connection with the Santa Fe was sev- 
ered, there have been those who have said that the value 
of the work was illusory, and that now, as a matter of fact, 
the entire structure has been torn down by the officers of 
the company. Of this much there can be no doubt, that 
the facile way in which savings running into the millions 
were calculated is now recognized as unscientific. We have 
talked with some of the men who made the original esti- 
mates, and they now acknowledge the impossibility of even 
approximately stating how much the innovations were 
worth, and indeed smile a little at their own big figures. 

As to the status on the Santa Fe to-day, the two follow- 
ing quotations, the one from Harrington Emerson, and the 
other from a present officer of the company, contain on 
the one hand an implied admission that there have been 
more or less important alterations, and on the other hand 
an acknowledgment on the part of the new managers that 
they have conserved much of Emerson's chief contribu- 
tion. Thus Emerson writes : ^ 

Since that time [his withdrawal six years before] there has 

* Correspondence dated Sept. 27, 1913. 



403] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 129 

been a change in vice-presidents, two changes in superinten- 
dent of motive power, and not one of my original group of 
assistants is left. Nevertheless much of the work remains. 
About 60,000 work schedules were made out and bonus to 
the extent of $1,000,000 a year has been paid, and in large 
amount is still being paid. 

From the other side, we are informed by Vice-President 
W. B. Storey ^ that v^^hile " it is not practicable to give an 
estimate of the saving due to ^betterment','' nevertheless: 
*' The bonus system installed at the time Mr. Emerson was 
with us is still in effect on our road, although it has been 
modified in certain directions." In reply to an inquir}^ as 
to what parts of " betterment " had been abolished, he 
said : " The principal feature that has been eliminated is 
bonus to foremen and men in authority." A considerable 
part of Emerson's work has therefore been retained on the 
Santa Fe, and, as we are told by various authorities, is 
working satisfactorily. 

f. Conclusions as to the Past of Scientific Management 

Thus is brought down to date the story of those instal- 
lations of scientific management which are discussed in the 
older literature of the subject. We may conclude that, 
while the facts do not warrant our saying with some that 
all of the stock illustrations of scientific management are 
to-day practically non-existent, nevertheless it is true that 
in each case something has happened to dim the glory of 
the achievement. Though abandoned in but few cases, and 
convicted of failure in none, stagnation, disavowal, or 
transformation, have destroyed their character as satisfac- 
tory evidence. However, as a matter of fact, the scientific- 
management men of to-day no longer care a great deal 

1 Quotations from correspondence dated March 17. 1914. 



130 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [404 

about these earlier examples. They regard most of them 
as but the remnants of experimental stages which their 
rapidly-developing movement has long ago left behind. 
In the following paragraphs we will turn, therefore, to a 
survey of certain scenes of contemporary activity, where 
the up-to-date system may be observed. 

2. A STUDY OF SEVERAL INSTALLATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY 

IMPORTANCE 

a. The Tabor Manufacturing Company 

This is a Philadelphia concern employing about one 
hundred men; it is engaged in the manufacture of mold- 
ing machinery, together with certain other machinery and 
appliances for machine-shop use. Though the company 
had been in business for a number of years, it v/as not 
until 1900 or later that it opened a shop for the purpose 
of doing its own manufacturing. The new venture was 
not very well organized, and the company sustained heavy 
losses, conditions being made still worse by a strike of the 
employees. After a time the president, Wilfred Lewis, 
who happened to be a personal friend of Frederick W. 
Taylor, sought and obtained the latter's financial aid. This 
was given on condition that scientific management be in- 
troduced. Reorganization was begun under the direction 
of Carl G. Barth, consulting engineer, with the aid of ad- 
vance sheets from Taylor's paper on "Shop Management" 
(read in June, 1903), and some personal supervision by 
Taylor himself. In the fall of 1904, Horace K. Hathaway 
was engaged to give his entire time to the introduction of 
the system, and since then, working first under the direction 
of Barth and then independently, Hathaway has been the 
man responsible for scientific management in this plant; 
he is now vice-president. Taylor was owner of a small 



405] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 131 

amount of stock, not at all a controlling interest, as is some- 
times said. 

The following claims have been made for scientific man- 
agement in the Tabor works : The first year that Hath- 
away was with the company they continued to lose money 
— antagonism within the management hindered the start; 
the second year, expenses were just about met; while dur- 
ing the third and succeeding years there were large profits.^ 
In 1 9 10 the experience of this company was Brandeis' first 
and strongest argument as to the efficacy of scientific man- 
agement. It was testified before the Interstate Commerce 
Commission that in 1910 the money value of the Tabor 
output was between twO' and three times as great as it had 
been in 1904, this value representing, as prices had fallen, 
a material output fully three times as great as in 1904. 
This remarkable showing had been effected without any 
increase in the size of the plant, the floor space remaining 
practically the same, merely some additional storage room 
having to be rented, and there having been but little new 
machinery added. More than this, the number of work- 
men, instead of being increased, had been actually reduced : 
where in 1904, 105 workmen were required in the shop 
and 5 in the office, in 19 10 only 75 were employed in the 
shop and 20 in the office (or in supervising) ; thus scien- 
tific management had cut down the total force from no 
to 95. 

1 The Tabor Manufacturing Company is said to have failed recently 
to declare a dividend. However, our informant, one of the leading 
critics of scientific management, assigned the incident to commercial 
causes alone, and not to the shop system. Mr. Hathaway tells us that 
while business conditions have been unusually unfavorable recently, his 
company has as a matter of fact often passed dividends — the stock 
being all in the hands of a small group, who have followed a policy 
of strengthening the company's resources, accumulating stock, etc., 
rather than seeking immediate returns. 



132 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [406 

A description of the introduction of scientific manage- 
ment into the Tabor works follows. The sketch will show 
scientific management from a new and more realistic angle. 
In our earlier discussion of the genesis of scientific man- 
agement the main features of the system were presented in 
what might be called their logical sequence; that is, atten- 
tion was first called to the ends in view, and secondly, to 
the means adopted. However, when a real factory — like 
the Tabor Manufacturing Company — actually starts to in- 
troduce scientific management, it is obvious that the vari- 
ous features must be installed in precisely the reverse of 
the logical order — that is, the first steps must be of a rather 
incidental nature, while the greater ends can be compassed 
only towards the last. Hence, as we review the experience 
of this company, we shall find our first, second, and third 
phases of scientific management somewhat rearranged. 

The first effort in the Tabor plant was to improve con- 
ditions. All of the machines were gone over, strengthened 
where necessary, and put into first-class order. A plentiful 
supply of small tools, such as bolts and clamps for holding 
materials, was purchased and put at the disposal of the 
workmen. Cutting tools of the most scientific shapes and 
of uniform quality of steel were introduced. As coming 
partly under this same head of rearranging conditions may 
be mentioned improvements in tool-rooms, store-rooms, etc. 

As rapidly as progress along this first line permitted, a 
second side of scientific management was taken up, namely, 
the organizing of the working force. The shop was placed 
under the control of a " functional management " with 
headquarters in a " planning department." To describe 
the Tabor system : As soon as an order has passed through 
the hands of the draftsman, it is analyzed to determine 
exactly what parts will have to be made, and then, the date 
for the completion of the entire order having been taken 



407] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 133 

into consideration, an explanatory diagram is drawn up, 
which covers all the parts, and specifies jtist when each part 
should be finished and ready for assembly. The next step 
is to send a list of the materials which will be needed to the 
stock clerk, who makes sure that everything will be on 
hand in time; also by way of preparation, an instruction 
card is made out for every operation, which covers the 
things to be done, the best methods of doing them, the 
tools that will be needed, and the time which each element 
of the job should take. Everything is now put into the 
charge of the ''order of work" clerk; keeping an eye on 
the planning-department diagram which stipulates when 
every operation must be finished, and at the same time 
keeping in touch with the daily work of every man and 
machine in the shop, this " general " routes and dispatches 
the jobs by means of elaborate bulletin-boards, the whole 
system thus resembling a great piece of clock-work. 

Again viewing the Tabor functional management, and 
this time from the standpoint of the workman at a ma- 
chine, functional management means that where formerly 
the workman had to hunt up the foreman to find out what 
he was to do, then search for materials, find and grind his 
own tools, etc., now he has everything brought to him in 
advance, and laid out before him in first-class condition 
ready for starting to work. In addition, the workman has 
at hand an instruction card, which makes unnecessary a 
preliminary debate as to what to do first. Also at his ser- 
vice are three teachers, of whom the gang-boss and the 
speed-boss instruct him in the most expeditious way of 
setting up and of performing the work, while the inspector 
instructs him as to how he may obtain the necessary quality. 

Not until the Tabor people had undertaken these two 
preliminary steps could there be installed the last and 
crowning feature of scientific management — the wage sys- 



134 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [408 

tern. Briefly characterized, this consists in timing the ele- 
mentary human movements entering into a job, calculating 
the machine times, and then using these data to decide how 
long it should take to complete the job; the company under 
all circumstances pays a day rate, which is, it is claimed, 
fully as high as that prevailing throughout the community 
for similar work; and then for successful accomplishment 
of the task it pays in addition a bonus amounting to 35 
per cent. Some of the men always earn their bonus ; others 
sometimes fail. The average amount carried home at the 
end of the week is said to be between 25 and 30 per cent 
greater than the same men could get elsewhere. 

The Tabor Manufacturing Company's plant is the most 
celebrated demonstration ground and school connected 
with the scientific-management movement. One gentleman 
counted some twenty visitors who went through the shop 
in about three hours one afternoon. It is a favorite place 
for training young men who are later to become experts 
on their own account. 

b. The Link-Belt Company 

A twin brother of the Tabor Manufacturing Company — 
as far as scientific management is concerned — is the Phila- 
delphia branch of the Link-Belt Company, a concern en- 
gaged in manufacturing elevating and conveying machin- 
ery, of special rather than standard types, and employing 
from four hundred to seven hundred and fifty men. In 
both the Tabor and Link-Belt plants, and at almost the 
same time, the introduction of scientific management was 
started by Carl G. Barth, under the general supervision of 
Frederick W. Taylor. Of the two, the Link-Belt people 
perhaps deserve credit for taking hold more promptly and 
attacking more vigorously and with less respect to cost 



409] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 135 

pioneer difficulties. Some believe, however, that at the pres- 
ent time there is a shade of difference the other way, and 
that the Tabor organization has carried its system to a finer 
point of perfection. But these distinctions are not impor- 
tant : scientific management has been installed completely in 
both plants; their methods are nearly identical; both con- 
cerns are celebrated. 

However, the statistics of the Link-Belt Company fur- 
nish the better basis for judgment as to the true value of 
scientific management ; for in the case of the Tabor Manu- 
facturing Company, all comparison is with a past when the 
concerns manufacturing w^as admittedly an immature, badly 
organized, and losing undertaking. The Link-Belt enter- 
prise, on the contrary, was started about 1874 or 1875, and 
since 1878 the company has had with it James M. Dodge, 
a president of the American Society of Mechanical Engi- 
neers. In the nineties they had a superintendent well 
versed in some of the best shop practices. Indeed, they 
thought in 1903 that they were running a model shop, and 
the company was, in fact, making money. Hence the com- 
parison, in the case of the Link-Belt Company, is between 
the best of the old and the best of the new. 

In 1910 James M. Dodge, chairman of the board of 
directors, testified before the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission that the Link-Belt Company was at that time pro- 
ducing twice as efficiently in its Philadelphia plant as in 
1903 and 1904, meaning that, per man employed, the out- 
put of the works as a whole was twice as great. As regards 
wages, he declared that all were paid what the men con- 
sidered fair day rates; in addition to this, a bonus was 
added for good work, which amounted in the case of most 
good workmen to 25 or 30 per cent of the ordinary wage, 
but in a few exceptional instances to 35 per cent. The 
labor time had thus been reduced by as much as 50 per 



136 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [410 

cent; but, taking into account the increase in wages, and 
making allowance for the fact that in this industry the ex- 
pense for labor is somewhat overshadowed by the outlay 
for raw materials, it was declared that in the total costs 
the system had meant a reduction of not more than 20 per 
cent. As the selling price had been cut 10 or 15 per cent — 
being figured for the most part on cost plus a percentage — 
the net gain to the stockholders could not have been more 
than 5 or 10 per cent of the selling price. In spite of this 
cutting away of a large part of the profits due to scientific 
management, the company was nevertheless decidedly more 
prosperous than before, its dividends having ranged in the 
years preceding 19 10 from 5 to 14 per cent. It was also 
brought out in Mr. Dodge's testimony that the Link-Belt 
routing system had been of special value, in that it enabled 
the company to deliver orders with greater regularity, and 
that their improved methods of replenishing stock had per- 
mitted a reduction of one-third in the stores kept per unit 
of business carried on. 

In April, 19 14, Frederick W. Taylor testified before the 
Industrial Relations Commission that 98 per cent of the 
metal-cutting tasks set in this plant were accomplished in 
schedule time by the workmen. Before the same com- 
mission, Dodge testified that the average term of employ- 
ment was more than seven years; also that the company 
had on file as many as 50,000 time studies. 

About 1906 there was a merger of the Philadelphia 
company with corporations carrying on manufacturing in 
Chicago and Indianapolis. In Chicago, the introduction of 
scientific management was begun promptly ; and because the 
management was now experienced, as much progress was 
made in one year in Chicago as had been made in four in 
Philadelphia. Later, the system was being installed rapidly 
in Indianapolis. 



41 1 ] A SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 137 

In weighing the value of these statistics in regard to the 
Tabor Manufacturing Company and the Link-Belt Com- 
pany, and, in fact, in judging of the results due to the in- 
troduction of scientific management in any machine shop, 
it must be remembered that one reason for success is the 
fact that the management experts bring with them high- 
speed steel. How much of the increase in productivity was 
due to organization and how much to this epoch-making 
mechanical improvement, it is hard to say, for the reason 
that it would be impossible to get the full benefit of the 
steel without the use of the instruction cards, bonuses, and 
other management features. Between the two sources of 
profit Dodge makes no distinction, but says that the 
doubling of productivity was due to scientific management 
plus high-speed steel. 

The prolonged studies by which the laws of metal-cutting 
were discovered and formulated for use in the shop, we 
believe should.be regarded as a distinctly scientific-manage- 
ment activity; and specially does the system deserve credit 
for any saving due to the every-day application of these 
principles by means of instruction cards, functional fore- 
men, etc. ; these are a part of scientific management. But 
high-speed steel, though a product of scientific manage- 
ment, should not be confused with it; and we must, there- 
fore, deduct something from the above estimates, to deter- 
mine the true worth of the new management taken by 
itself. 

Besides allowing for the effect of high-speed steel, it may 
be noted that in six years ordinary progress should account 
for a certain lessening of cost. The fact that prices were 
lower and competitors more numerous in the fields occupied 
by both companies in 19 10 than in 1904 might indicate that 
other forces were reducing costs and increasing outputs 
besides scientific management. 



138 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [412 

It is believed, however, that after taking all these things 
into consideration, a good part of the three-fold productiv- 
ity claimed for the Tabor plant, and the two-fold efficiency 
claimed for the Link-Belt works, should be laid to the 
credit of scientific management. The greater prosperity of 
the companies, both as compared with their own past and 
with the condition of their competitors, indicates that they 
now have some unusual advantage. The decision of the 
Link-Belt Company to install the system in its Chicago and 
Indianapolis plants shows that the managers, at least, are 
convinced of its value. 

c. The Watertown Arsenal 

On June 14, 1909, Carl G. Barth began the installation 
of scientific management in the arsenal operated by the 
United States Government at Watertown, Mass. After 
about two years spent in looking over the machinery and 
in systematizing the plant, the first bonus was offered in 
May, 191 1. The application of the new wage system was 
gradually widened, so that by May, 191 3, 45 per cent of 
the work of the machine shop was under the premium 
system, some of the other departments, however, running 
as low as 5 per cent. Altogether, during that month, 210 
out of the 600 employees of the arsenal worked a part of 
their time upon premium jobs. Though it is thus seen 
that scientific management had not yet been thoroughly 
enough introduced to make the Watertown Arsenal a 
typical instance of its application, yet the fact that we here 
meet with official figures makes it worth while to give a 
brief summary of the results obtained. 

In his annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
19 1 2, General Crozier, Chief of Ordnance, gave special 
attention to the subject of scientific management. He 
stated that during that year it had saved the Watertown 



413] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 139 

Arsenal $49,000; but if throughout the entire twelve 
months there had been as much of the system in force as 
there was in May and June, the figures would have been 
$100,000. The best proof of the value of scientific man- 
agement, he continued, was the fact that due to the exist- 
ence of these savings the estimates for the next fiscal year 
had been reduced by over $240,000. Scientific management 
was furthermore permitting a substantial reduction in the 
amount of stores, $122,000 worth having been already ab- 
sorbed. The productivity of the individual was on the 
average about two and a half times as great as it had been 
under day-work, as was found by a comparison of the job 
cards on about sixty different jobs, each of which was 
performed both under the old day-work and the premium 
systems. 

In a memorandum submitted to the Secretary of War 
on September 6, 191 3, General Crozier further stated that 
in the seventeen months ending May 31, 19 13, $22,000 had 
been paid out in premiums to the men. During May, 191 3, 
individuals had earned bonuses varying from nothing to 
$31. In the machine shop, the average earnings while 
working on premium jobs were 24 per cent above the day 
rate. More men earned premiums between 30 and 35 per 
cent than in any other 5-per-cent group, while less than 4 
per cent failed to receive any bonus. These machinists con- 
stituted three-fifths of the premium workers. The averages 
for the other departments were generally higher, and in no 
case lower, than 24 per cent. 

The premium system at Watertown starts with the usual 
stop-watch analysis on the basis of which the time required 
to perform work is ascertained ; this time is then increased 
by two-thirds (that is, for a job that can be done in 30 
minutes, 50 minutes is allowed), and then for every minute 
saved from the time allowed a premium of half a minute's 



I40 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [414 

additional pay is given. Thus if a task which can be done 
in 30 minutes is actually finished in 30 instead of 50 min- 
utes, the premium amounts to 10 minutes, or 33 J^ per cent. 
No matter how long a man takes, he gets his regular day 
rate; and in September, 1913, General Crozier stated that 
up to that time no one had been discharged for failure to 
earn a bonus, or indeed because of the introduction of 
scientific management. Foremen are given bonuses which 
vary with the success of their subordinates. 

The chief interest in the Watertown Arsenal case centers, 
however, in the relationship between scientific management 
and organized labor. In December, 19 10, General Crozier 
had assembled at Watertown a board including the com- 
manding officers of the principal manufacturing arsenals. 
A thorough study was made of the new methods and their 
adoption elsewhere recommended. By this time, the hear- 
ings before the Interstate Commerce Commission had 
thrown the limelight on scientific management. When, 
therefore, in the spring of 191 1, steps were taken tO' intro- 
duce the system at the Rock Island Arsenal, the employees 
there, in cooperation with President Gompers of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor and President O'Connell of the 
International Association of Machinists, vigorously at- 
tacked it. Hearings were secured before the House com- 
mittee on labor, and an alarmist circular was issued by 
O'Connell. 

Possibly it was because of this stimulus. General Cro- 
zier thinks, that when an attempt was made to introduce 
the bonus system into the Watertown foundry during the 
summer of 191 1, the entire force walked out. Though 
they came back in a few days and the installation of scien- 
tific management was successfully continued, on August 21 
the House of Representatives authorized a special com- 
mittee to make an investigation. This committee, composed 
of W. B. Wilson, later Secretary of Labor, Wm. C. Red- 



415] A SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 141 

field, later Secretary of Commerce, and John Q. Tilson, 
held hearings in Boston, New York, and Washington, be- 
ginning on October 4, 1.911, and ending the following Feb- 
ruary 1 2th. On June 17, 1913, the majority of the Water- 
town employees, and then on June 21 their union represen- 
tatives, filed petitions requesting the abandonment of the 
" Taylor " or " stop-watch " system. To these petitions 
General Crozier made an exhaustive reply (September 6). 
From time to time various bills have been introduced 
into both houses of Congress forbidding the use of the 
stop watch (or other time-measuring device) and the pay- 
ing of bonuses on government work. On March 3, 191 5, 
the House forced the Senate's unwilling consent to pro- 
visions in both the Army and Navy appropriation bills for- 
bidding the use of funds for either of these purposes. This 
means that, beginning with July i, 191 5, the extension or 
preservation of this phase of scientific management in the 
Government arsenals will be impossible. For a year, at 
least, the system will be suppressed. Indeed, the War De- 
partment has not waited for July to begin its removal.^ 

d. The Cotton Industry 
Our last detailed description will be of a plant in regard 
to which there is available exceptionally valuable data re- 
specting the efifect of scientific management on health. It 
is a New Jersey cotton mill, systematized some time ago by 
Henry L. Gantt, who for five years devoted a portion of 
his attention to the work. The increase in the productivity 
of the factory amounted to perhaps 20 or 30 per cent, and 

1 Colonel Charles B. Wheeler, commanding officer of the Watertown 
Arsenal, and Major C. C. Williams, his first assistant, have devoted 
much time to the matter of pushing the introduction of scientific man- 
agement; Dwight V. Merrick, a very capable time-study man, was 
Earth's assistant. For statement as to the objections raised against 
scientific management at Watertown, cf. infra, p. 188, n., and pp. 190-2. 
That the formal petitions, in fact, misrepresented the real sentiments of 
the employees is indicated, infra, pp. 192-3. 



142 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [416 

was substantial, though not at all as phenomenal as in the 
case of the metal-cutting shops. Wages were increased by 
about 30 per cent in many (though not all) of the depart- 
ments, so that it is seen that the profit to the management 
did not lie in diminishing the direct labor cost, but rather 
lay in lessening the proportion of overhead expense to be 
attached to each unit of output, because of the increased 
production. As quality as well as quantity was considered 
in the paying of bonuses, there was a marked improvement 
in the uniformity of the product. 

Though there was thus no overwhelming increase in the 
production of this cotton mill, it might not be a bad place 
to look for injurious effects upon the health of the work- 
ers : a large number of the employees were women ; and 
the introduction of task-setting — though it eventually re- 
sulted in the work's being practically all performed in 
standard time — was at first accompanied by a marked thin- 
ning in the ranks of the employees. This would cause one 
to wonder whether Gantt was right in saying that those 
who fell by the wayside were idlers, or whether the oppo- 
nents of the system could not here find a justification for 
their general contention that the pace set by scientific man- 
agement is too fast. 

We may, therefore, attach considerable importance to a 
two months' investigation covering the effect of scientific 
management on health in this and two other factories. 
This investigation was financed by S. S. McClure, and con- 
ducted by Miss Edith Wyatt, for many years vice-president 
of the Illinois Consumers' League, an organization which 
strives to ameliorate the conditions of women's and chil- 
dren's labor. In her testimony before the special House 
committee appointed to investigate scientific management, 
Miss Wyatt gave the following facts : ^ 

1 Hearings^ pp. 592-604. 



417] ^4 SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 143 

Her investigation of the cotton mill concerned only the 
women workers; it included one or more visits to the 
homes of 30 out of the no women operatives, and talks 
with the mothers of the younger girls. As to the attitude 
of the girls towards scientific management, Miss Wyatt 
said: 

. . . they were almost all of them pleased with it. The only 
one who was distinctly displeased with it was the girl I men- 
tioned who was living in really very tragic conditions at home 
. . . she complained of the entire cotton industry . . . but I 
did not feel her complaint was due to scientific management. 
And then the winder I speak of complained of the stamping 
on pedals, and that I felt was justified. [This latter work was 
afterwards turned over to boys.] 

Miss Wyatt said that in all her investigations she found 
only one mother who objected to the system, and after 
talking with the neighbors and looking up the health of the 
children. Miss Wyatt thought that this complaint was 
groundless. 

Her own observations, made department by department, 
convinced Miss Wyatt that in only one particular were 
conditions unfavorable to health, and that was where some 
obstacle, regularly connected with the work, had to be 
encountered oftener because of the speeding-up of the 
machinery — as, for instance, the stamping on pedals men- 
tioned above. However, the management was constantly 
and successfully applying itself to the eradication of these 
obstacles; and even in spite of the burdensomeness of these 
difficult operations, the amelioration of working conditions 
in general — the better air, better light, and reduced strain — 
made for a net improvement in working conditions under 
the system. 

In the course of her investigation. Miss Wyatt was per- 



144 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^ig 

haps struck with nothing more forcibly than the changed 
attitude of the employers towards hours, wages, conditions 
of work, etc. — the " mental revolution "of which Fred- 
erick W. Taylor is fond of speaking. She offered one 
criticism: "My feeling . . . was that if the workers had 
been organized, if the workers themselves had stated their 
grievances, that it would have been of great assistance 
both to the employers and to the efficiency engineers and 
to the girls themselves." 

3. EXTENT OF THE INTRODUCTION OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGE- 
MENT 

Turning now to a more rapid survey of other plants in 
which scientific management has been installed, Frederick 
A. Parkhurst's Applied Methods of Scientific Management 
is a 325-page record of the precise steps taken to modify 
and expand Taylor's principles to meet the specific condi- 
tions existing in a given plant, namely, that of the Ferra- 
cute Machine Company at Bridgeton, New Jersey. The 
claim is made that with practically the same employees and 
equipment the time required to perform 275 jobs was on 
the average reduced to just 38 per cent of what it had been 
before, that after increasing the average day rate by 11 
per cent, and giving to bonus workers in addition an in- 
crease of from 20 to 60 per cent, the total cost for the 275 
jobs, including overhead expense, was only 47 per cent of 
what it had been under the old system. 

In the printing line, much attention has been attracted 
to the reorganization of the Plimpton Press, at Norwood, 
Massachusetts, by Morris L. Cooke and Horace K. Hath- 
away, with the aid of Henry P. Kendall, manager. This 
well-known concern employs about 1,200 persons. The 
Taylor system was partially installed for the Forbes Litho- 
graph Company of Boston, the initial work there having 



419] A SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 145 

been done by Cooke. A start was made in the plant of the 
Curtis PubHshing Company of Philadelphia, and in that 
of the Manhattan Press of New York. 

The Union Typewriter Company is now accepting 
scientific management from Henry L. Gantt; the Pullman 
Company of Chicago from Carl G. Barth. The H. H. 
Franklin Manufacturing Company, automobile builders, are 
having the system installed by Dw^ight V. Merrick, their 
w^orks manager being George D. Babcock. The Yale & 
Towne Manufacturing Company employed Carl G. Barth 
to introduce scientific management into one department 
some time ago, and is now extending the same to the whole 
plant under the leadership of J. C. Reagan. Gantt's most 
promising field is now the Westinghouse Electric Com- 
pany, and he has been retained by the famous Cheney Silk 
Mills of South Manchester, Conn. 

The mere mention of these great corporations shows that 
scientific management is now being rapidly intrenched in 
the high places of the industrial world. Turning our in- 
quiry now to the proportion of industry affected, Robert 
T. Kent, who is the secretary of the Society for the Pro- 
motion of the Science of Management, and who excludes 
from scientific management everything that is not strictly 
*'Taylor,'' tells us that one day he called to mind with but 
little effort sixty important instances of the introduction 
of the system. If now to the Taylor group's work be 
added the two hundred installations of Harrington Emer- 
son, and also those of a great number of other efficiency 
engineers whose methods largely parallel scientific manage- 
ment, the actual results of the movement are seen to be not 
inconsiderable. A committee of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers reported in December, 19 12, that 
although they could not obtain complete statistics as to the 
extent of the introduction of the new system, " labor- 



146 



SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 



[420 



saving management " (by which they meant scientific man- 
agement) had been installed in some form in the following 
fifty-two industries : ^ 



Book binding 
Building construction 
Carriage and wagon building 
Construction and repair of 

vessels (navy yards) 
Fire-arms and ordnance 

Rifles 

Gun carriages 
Machinery building 

Automobiles 

Agricultural implements 

Coal-handling machinery 

Electrical machinery 

Founding, iron and brass 

General machine work 

Gas engines 

Locomotives 

Machine tools 

Molding machines 

Pumps 

Pneumatic tools 

Sewing machines 

Typewriters 

Wood-working machinery 
Metal and coal mining 



Metal working 

Bolts and nuts 

Chains 

Hardware 

Tanks 

Tin cans 

Valves and pipe fittings 
Miscellaneous manufacturing 

Beer 

Beet sugar 

Boxes (wood and paper) 

Buttons 

Qothing 

Cordage 

Food products 

Furniture 

Flour 

Glass 

Lumber products 

Pianos 

Paper and paper pulp 

Rubber goods 

Soaps 

Shoes 

Slate products 



■ * Cf. C. Bertrand Thompson, " Scientific Management in Practice," 
Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1915. Mr. Thompson, after a 
field investigation covering twelve states and continued through por- 
tions of three years, amends the above list by removing sewing ma- 
chines, brewing, and beet-sugar refining, on the ground that in these 
industries " there was merely consultation or a report which did not 
develop later into actual work." He further recasts and supplements 
the list so as to make it number eighty industries. 



421 ] A SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS i^y 

Printing and lithographing Textile manufacture 

Railroad maintenance of mo- Bleaching and dyeing 

tive power Cottons 

Steel manufacture Velvets 

Woolens 

When, however, the area dominated by scientific man- 
agement is compared with the vast expanse of American 
and world industry, it must be admitted that, while scien- 
tific management has made a good start, its extent is as 
yet far from all-embracing. Fifty thousand is a common 
estimate as to the number of persons employed under the 
system; or, to put substantially this same judgment in an- 
other form, the leaders say that probably one-tenth of one 
per cent would exceed the proportion of the national in- 
dustry which they have reshaped. It may be noted, how- 
ever, that Mr. Taylor recently raised his estimate to 150,- 
000 or 200,000.^ 

All these estimates, however, include plants where the 
work is incomplete. Thus Emerson tells us that in no 
plant has he had an opportunity to install his system as 
thoroughl}^ as Taylor's ideas have been incorporated in the 
Tabor shop. " In many plants our engagement was for 
very short periods. A limited sum would be appropriated 

^ Testimony before the Industrial Relations Commission, April, 1914. 
Taylor said that he regarded these figures — and all similar estimates — 
as pure guesses. He declared that he knew of perhaps 100 plants 
where the Taylor System was working, but that there were certainly 
others. 

C. Bertrand Thompson {loc. cit.) has since claimed definite knowl- 
edge of 140 applications of scientific management, of which 5 are to 
railroad and steamship operation, 4 to public service corporations, 4 
to municipal work, 3 to building and construction companies, i to a 
department store, i to a bank, i to a publisher, i to a professional 
society, and the remaining 120 to factories. He estimates that the fac- 
tories employ 43,000 men, and the transportation companies 20,000, 
He believes that the bonus affects as many as 40,000 employees. 



148 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [422 

with instructions to do the best we could in three months 
or six months." And so, to a large extent, has it been 
almost everywhere. Not only has the system been modi- 
fied and minimized to meet financial limitations, but usu- 
ally peculiar obstacles of one sort or another have affected 
the nature of the introduction. Thus complete reorganiza- 
tions on eflficiency lines are not very numerous, and pure 
scientific management is extremely rare. 

At the same time, not even the largest-sounding of the 
estimates given above would cover all the industry upon 
which scientific management has had some effect. They 
take into account only installations by men who' have hung 
rather close to the original leaders. No one group of lead- 
ers, however, is now able to control the scientific-manage- 
ment movement. We noted in the last chapter the large 
number of persons who have entered upon the work pro- 
fessionally or taken an active part in introducing changes 
into their own plants. Perhaps they do not completely un- 
derstand scientific management, but they have read Taylor's 
books, or Emerson's, or caught their spirit, — and one or 
another of the principles is adopted. Missionaries fresh 
from India and Japan have told us of their thought that 
these principles might be applied to mission finances or to 
mission industrial work. University men, next door, have 
proposed to apply them in the class-room. Wherever, on 
the train or in the shop, we have talked with factory work- 
men or managers, they have had something to say about 
new systems, different perhaps in name, but very similar in 
effect to those herein described. We suppose there are few 
important factories where the influence of scientific man- 
agement has not been felt, to at least a small extent. 

While America is the home of " scientific management," 
an important literature on the subject has appeared in Ger- 
man and French. In most of the other leading languages, 



423] ^ SURVEY OF TRADES AND PLANTS 149 

translations of one or more American works are obtainable. 
According to Morris L. Cooke: ^ "There are some estab- 
lishments in most of these countries in which real progress 
in scientific management is being made. Better still in 
most foreign countries one or more prominent citizens — 
usually of the engineering profession — are advocating the 
adoption of scientific management as a means toward 
national progress." 

* " The Spirit and Social Significance of Scientific Management," 
Journal of Political Economy, June, 1913, p. 482. 



PART II 

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF IMPORTANT 
ASPECTS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 



CHAPTER VI 

The Productivity of Scientific Management 

In discussing the productivity of a system as many- 
sided as scientific management, the system as a whole must 
be resolved into its constituent parts. The various effi- 
ciency devices should be arranged in the order of their re- 
spective importance, and the value of each estimated. We 
face, therefore, the leading question: What is the most 
profitable feature of scientific management? 

I. THE VALUE OF THE INITIATIVE OF WORKMEN 

Of his original publication, " A Piece-Rate System," 
Frederick W. Taylor afterwards stated that his chief object 
in writing it was " to advocate the study of ' unit times ' 
as the foundation of good management." ^ In regard to 
his more mature paper, " Shop Management," the father 
of scientific management makes the even stronger declara- 
tion : ^ '' What the writer wishes particularly toi emphasize 
is that the whole system rests upon an accurate and scien- 
tific study of * unit times,' which is by far the most im- 
portant element in modern management." What was true 
at the beginning is true to-day. In 19 13 Morris L. Cooke, 
than whom no one has done more to broaden the scope of 
scientific management, still felt constrained to say : ^ 
*' Practically everything that is done in developing scien- 

i"iShop Management," Transactions of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, vol, xxiv, p. 1364. 
2 Ihid., p. 1364. 
' Journal of Political Economy, June, 1913, p. 487. 

427] 153 



154 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [428 

tific management in an establishment has for its object the 
setting of tasks." 

The fact that task-setting is the thing towards which all 
scientific management is directed is of the greatest impor- 
tance for the present discussion, for it indicates that the 
aspect of the system of which this device is the central 
feature is the most largely productive of all. The attain- 
ment of the initiative of the workman, through giving an 
extra reward for the successful completion of a task, which 
task has been determined by the study of unit times— this 
end must be regarded as the initial incentive and the mov- 
ing force behind the entire development. 

The contribution which the first phase of scientific man- 
agement has made to the general productivity of the system 
may be evaluated as follows : 

Before the system had been developed so as to include 
many auxiliary features, production on jobs in the Mid- 
vale Steel works was increased by 100 per cent, this being 
credited almost entirely to the setting of tasks by means 
of elementary time study and the application of the differ- 
ential rate. Taylor tells us in "A Piece-Rate System " ^ 
that he has never failed to find men who are glad to un- 
load coal from a car at the rate of forty tons per day in- 
stead of the usual fifteen tons. Beyond taking care to 
select strong men, there seems to have been no extensive 
study of the work; but reliance was placed mainly on rous- 
ing interest through task-work with liberal pay. The pos- 
sibility of greatly increasing production through adjust- 
ments in the method of wage determination is attested by 
authorities from all quarters. Thus David F. Schloss 
found that by ordinary piece-work, production could be 
increased from 30 to 50 per cent ; ^ and Frederick A. Hal- 

* Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers^ 
vol. xvi, p. 878. 
2 Supra, p. 32. 



429] PRODUCTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT j^^ 

sey claims for his " premium plan " an increase in pro- 
ductivity of 70 per cent/ Finally, the retention of the 
bonus system in the plants of the Bethlehem Steel Com- 
pany ^ and of the Santa Fe railway ^ indicate that it is of 
real value. 

We may believe, therefore, that the greatest gain which 
attends the introduction of scientific management is the 
minimizing of the friction and waste which ordinarily 
occur when one man works for another. The more cap- 
able men do not accomplish nearly as much work as they 
might easily turn out, this attitude being assumed as a 
matter of policy. Scientific management, through deter- 
mining reasonable tasks by the accurate method of elemen- 
tary time study, and then adequately rewarding workers 
who attain the standard, is therefore capable of adding 
substantially to the sum total of production; nor need the 
cost of the additional effort be as great as the value of the 
extra product. 

But the precise amount of gain varies, on the one hand 
with the seriousness with which work has been done be- 
fore, and on the other with the extent to which a rigid 
scientific determination of tasks is feasible. 

General Crozier describes an instance at the Watertown 
Arsenal where the time on a job was not reduced, because 
the man who had been previously working on it was an 
earnest workman. Likewise, the gains under scientific 
management have often loomed up in greatly exaggerated 
proportions, because the shops concerned had been badly 
managed previous to reorganization. It is probable that 
on jobs where a piece-rate or Halsey premium system has 
been used for a long time, the industry of the men cannot 
be greatly increased by the introduction of scientific man- 

1 Supra, pp. 49-50. 2 Supra, p. 122. 

3 Supra, pp. 128-9. 



156 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [430 

agement. It follows that this phase of scientific manage- 
ment is of chief advantage in those fields where constant 
or frequent change in the work prevents or delays the 
establishment of reliable day-work or piece-work stand- 
ards; and the productivity of scientific management, as 
compared with that of these other systems, may be said to 
vary in inverse proportion to the amount of repetition in 
the work. 

This law, however, has to do only with increasing mate- 
rial production. The feasibility, or, better yet, the profit- 
ableness of the elementary analysis is affected by other 
circumstances. Scientific management would be out of the 
question unless there were running through the non-repeti- 
tive work, elements practically constant, or subject only to 
regular change from job to job. The cost of the system 
is reasonable only where the work elements are simple and 
extend on the average through a large number of jobs. 
The all-important proportion of cost to profit is favorable 
only where the work units — as well as the jobs themselves 
— are comparatively large. 

In general, to obtain the greatest profit there must be a 
good deal of work handled, there should be a marked simi- 
larity running through considerable portions of it, and the 
jobs should be of large size, possibly taking a number of 
hours for performance.^ A balance must always be struck 
between the cost of the studies and the worth of the results.^ 

^ On a sample instruction card showing the system as it existed at 
Bethlehem in 1910, the analysis was in no case carried as far as work 
elements which could be done in less than ten minutes. The jobs in 
the machine shops where scientific management has been applied often 
take several hours. Of course, as the number of times that a job is 
repeated becomes greater it may become profitable to carry the analysis 
further ; in work such as handkerchief folding, the elements are re- 
duced to small fractions of a second. 

2 If Gilbreth's reorganization of bricklaying is thought to be an ex- 



43 1 ] PRODUCTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 157 

2. THE EXTENT TO WHICH PLANNING MAY BE PROFITABLY 

CARRIED 

One could hardly imagine a great increase in production 
without accompanying features — as the choosing of able 
workmen or the taking of greater care to supply the men 
abundantly with work; some changes are incidental to, or 
necessar}^ consequences of, greater productivity. But the 
features which constitute the second phase of scientific 
management are more than merely supplementary ; they seek 
recognition as an original source of profit. 

In the machine shop and in some other branches of in- 
dustry the most important of these changes is standardiza- 
tion of tools and equipment, both because of its own merits 
and because it is the condition of progress along many of 

ception to the principle that large non-repetitive work is the most profit- 
able field for task-setting based on elementary time study, it may be 
pointed out that Gilbreth did not claim that he had drawn more initia- 
tive from his men, but he attributed his success entirely to motion 
study and changes in the methods of work. If shoveling be cited, it 
may be observed that, though the elements entering into shoveling are 
repeated, the work as a whole is constantly varying, because of differ- 
ences in materials, height of pile, etc. Thus it cannot be brought under 
ordinary piece-work. As regards pig-iron handling, it is probable that 
a man of Taylor's energy could in the long run have obtained just 
as hearty a co-operation from.the men without introducing elementary 
time study, provided he selected his workmen. Of course, without the 
studies of fatigue, their efforts, though quite as earnest, would have 
been less efficient. Our point is, not to deny that elementary time 
study has accomplished great results in connection with repetitive 
work, but to show that (if we bar the gains due to discoveries of 
better methods of work) elementary time study's chief superiority over 
ordinary methods of piece-rate fixing is in its accomplishing quickly 
and easily what can be done by the latter, if the struggle be long enough 
and vigorous enough {cf. supra, p. 35, n.). The full benefits of scien- 
tific management being realized at once, and those of ordinary piece- 
rate systems comparatively late, it is obvious that the greatest super- 
iority of the former is in connection with jobs running for but a short 
time, if repeated at all. 



158 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [432 

the other lines. While standardization accompanies scien- 
tific management primarily because of the necessity of 
establishing uniform conditions which will render task- 
setting accurate and fair, nevertheless in substituting for 
the weaker parts of machines strong parts, and in throw- 
ing out tools of old design and introducing others of more 
modern make, standardization transcends its original pur- 
pose and becomes the parent of an efficiency which is no 
longer a part of management. The value of this gain in 
mechanical efficiency is apt to vary according to whether 
the industry involved has been the scene of little or much 
recent improvement in technical processes. 

Second only to standardization, and in specific instances 
of greater value, is what is variously known as routing, 
scheduling, and despatching. We are told that productivity 
is often increased through this means alone by thirty or 
forty per cent, and that on occasions it has been observed 
to actually double the output. On the Canadian Pacific rail- 
way despatching locomotive-repair work was credited with 
saving three days' time or $300 in expense in the case of 
each locomotive sent to the shops. Miss Wyatt testified 
that in some of the departments of the cotton mill which 
she visited the gain seemed to be practically all due to rout- 
ing. Good routing shows results perhaps more instantan- 
eously and more clearly than any of the other features of 
scientific management. No one sees danger in the intro- 
duction of either standardized equipment or routing. 

Regarding the extension of the authority of a planning 
department to small and seemingly personal matters — as is 
the case when an instruction card is issued for every job, 
or a workman is " coached " in the best way of picking up 
a brick or thrusting a shovel — it may be said, first of the 
instruction card, that its original application was in con- 
nection with very large work, where there was an impor- 



433] PRODUCTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT jr^ 

tant technical element involved, and where the application 
of science could not only save a considerable amount of the 
workman's time, but also reduce the operating expense of 
heavy machines; the work was changed so frequently that 
general training could not meet all of the circumstances. 
As jobs become smaller, the issuing of individual instruc- 
tion cards becomes less profitable; as they become less 
technical or are repeated oftener, the cards become less 
necessary; until finally their value vanishes altogether. 
But in the Watertown Arsenal, where as in other machine 
shops the instruction card serves as a connecting link be- 
tween an important technique and the every-day work, 
General Crozier declares ^ that ''The saving in time results, 
aside from any increased efficiency of machines, chiefly 
from the effect of the instructions given the workmen, by 
which their effort is more advantageously applied, and will 
involve no exhausting exertion on their part, nor such as 
should be disagreeable." The central feature of this in- 
struction is the instruction card. 

Of intensive individual " coaching,'' it m.ay be said that 
this can be carried to refinement only in cases where there 
is a great deal of repetition. In bricklaying, in shoveling, 
in carrying pig iron, there is gain in spending great effort 
to eliminate even a very small, useless motion. However, 
the public has a greatly exaggerated idea as to the impor- 
tance of this side of scientific management. Its novelty has 
attracted attention, but in reality there is little of it. In 
the typical plant where scientific management has been in- 
troduced, workmen are not guarded to see whether they 
hold their hammers at the end or in the middle, their steps 
are not ordered, nor is their breathing regulated. These 
things are not commercially worth while, and the men who 

1 Report of the Chief of Ordinance, 191 1, p. 673. 



l6o SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [43^ 

go farthest in this direction lose caste, more or less, as 
practical engineers. The more successful leaders are too 
busy attacking problems of first importance tO' give their 
attention to such details. There is a class of jobs where 
close supervision of motions pays, but of the industry of 
the country as a whole, they constitute only a small part. 
True, there is a constant tendency to simplify and stand- 
ardize work tO' the point where, it may be successfully stereo- 
typed; but, on the other hand, at just about that point it is 
frequently possible to substitute machines. 

Selection of workmen is of the most importance where 
heavy demands are made on some one faculty. Thus on 
heavy work, there is great gain in employing sturdy 
men; on inspection, in using persons of quick sight and 
prompt motor reaction. The kind of selection which 
picks out for all-around work men who are above the aver- 
age, is of course practiced by every employer as far as 
practicable. Under scientific management, the unusually 
high pay makes it possible to carry this policy somewhat 
further. However, the idea that super-men only are to be 
retained is not enforced in practice as much as the litera- 
ture of scientific management would suggest. The intro- 
duction of the system at the Watertown Arsenal was 
accompanied by no discharge. The old employees of the 
Tabor and Link-Belt concerns were retained under the new 
system. Emerson and Gantt emphasize the importance of 
setting tasks that any normal person can accomplish. It 
should be noted, though, that Taylor seems to have always 
been on a keen lookout for able men; and that there is 
considerable attention given under scientific management to 
transferring employees from jobs at which they are ineffi- 
cient to others for which they are better fitted; promotion, 
too, is on a more scientific basis, because the management 
is in possession of adequate records of past achievements. 



435] PRODUCTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT i6i 

and is also in closer touch with the men. But generally 
speaking, in the case of most of the plants which have in- 
stalled scientific management, the selection and retention of 
employees is on a basis not radically different from that in 
other shops. 

Improved methods of handling stores under scientific 
management not only facilitate all the other work of the 
shop and permit shipments to be made more promptly, but 
they also yield a direct financial profit in that they allow a 
reduction in the amount of materials kept on hand. At 
Watertown, $122,000 worth of materials, which had been 
rendered superfluous by the introduction of scientific stores- 
keeping, was put into use in a short time. In the plant of 
the Link-Belt Company one-third less of stores per unit of 
output was required after the introduction of scientific 
management.^ The cost of interest on capital, rent for 
storage room, and depreciation was thus lightened. 

3. THE PLACE OF ORGANIZATION IN SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT 

The creation of a new and different sort of directing 
force, due to the new obligations assumed by scientific 
management, gave Taylor an opportunity to impress a 
character upon the field opened by his work. From the 
earliest days he first secretly practiced and then openly 
advocated the use of what he called a functional manage- 
ment, whose most striking feature is the creation of eight 
bosses where one existed before. Functional management 
has for many been identical with scientific management; it 
is indeed in certain important shops the most noticeable 

1 Before crediting this last entirely to scientific management, we 
should remember that after the system's introduction, production was 
carried on on a somewhat larger scale, which might naturally lead to 
more efficient stores arrangements per unit of output. 



t62 scientific management [435 

feature connected with the system. When the values of 
the different sides of scientific management are weighed^ 
however, it seems that that part of the system which con- 
sists in giving a precise form to organization is not nearly 
so essential as are the prime ends for the purpose of accom- 
lishing which this last phase was created. 

As proof of this, it is only necessary to point out two 
other schemes of organization which bring practically as 
good results and indeed possess certain distinct advantages. 
The first is the " line and staff " system of Harrington 
Emerson, which, through centering authority in one boss, 
and drawing upon a large staff for knowledge, seeks to do 
away with the weakness which comes from making a work- 
man responsible to as many as eight superiors. The second 
is the "departmental system" described by John C. Duncan 
as having come almost unconsciously into use in hundreds 
of plants. The work is divided between small departments, 
each under the absolute control of one man. In a machine 
shop, for instance, one department might be composed of 
the men running large machine tools; another, of those 
erecting large parts of engines ; a third, of the valve-setting 
gang; a fourth, of those in charge of tool-rooms; a fifth, 
of those in charge of stores; a sixth, of the riggers or 
crane men; a seventh, of repair men; and an eighth of 
those entrusted with tool-making and grinding. Thus a 
large part of the functional arrangement is preserved, but 
there is no division of authority. Duncan thinks this latter 
plan superior to that of having functional foremen. "As 
a matter of fact, so many bosses really hinder the work. 
They irritate the men and are expensive to keep up. . . ." * 

To recapitulate, the productivity of reorganization is, 
from one point of view, equal to that of the whole of scien- 
tific management, in that without some kind of enlarge- 

^ The Principles of Industrial Management, p. 192. 



437] PRODUCTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 163 

ment and rearrangement in the directing force the system 
could never be operated. But the problem as to whether that 
directing force shall be called functional foremen, or staff, 
or department heads, will probably be solved by various 
firms in different ways with almost equal satisfaction. The 
one principle which may be safely laid down is that scien- 
tific management in its enlarged organization offers an 
opportunity for profitable specialization along compara- 
tively narrow lines. This opportunity has been very gen- 
erally utilized. 

4. HOW MUCH CAN SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT INCREASE 
THE NATIONAL INCOME? 

The productivity of scientific management cannot be cal- 
culated by adding together the values of its various fea- 
tures. A case may easily be imagined where a given in- 
crease in output would figure in one connection as due to 
selection of workmen, in another as the result of a bonus, 
in another as rendered possible by routing, and in another 
as brought about by functional management. For perhaps 
if any one of these various elements had been missing the 
gain would not have been effected, and so to each belongs 
the credit. 

Estimates as to the total productivity of scientific man- 
agement have been made for various specific plants as fol- 
lows: The Tabor Manufacturing Company's product is 
now said to be worth two and a half times as much, and 
to be in quantity three times as great as before the intro- 
duction of scientific management — this in spite of a reduc- 
tion in the number of employees. The productive efficiency 
of the Link-Belt plant has been doubled. The Watertown 
Arsenal estimates were reduced by $240,000. In the cotton 
industry, productivity was increased enough to cover an 
advance in wages amounting to about 30 per cent. For the 



l64 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [438 

Ferracute Machine Company, the expense of doing a large 
number of jobs was reduced to 47 per cent of what it had 
been, which equals a new productivity amounting to 213 
per cent of the old. Under scientific management the aver- 
age individual handles quantities of pig iron equal to 380 
per cent of his former task. Yard laborers at Bethlehem 
(shoveling) increased their output to 368 per cent. Brick- 
layers perform tasks enlarged to 270 per cent. As many 
bicycle balls were inspected by 35 girls as had been handled 
formerly by 120. On the Santa Fe, it was estimated that 
$1,250,000 was saved in one year. 

There are dangers, however, in taking a specific example 
of the success of scientific management, and regarding it 
as illustrative of what the system is capable of doing. The 
test of measuring the material output of a concern before 
and after the introduction of scientific management is in 
some cases a good criterion. In the instance of a great 
deal of the best work, however, the use of high-speed steel 
has had much to do with multiplying the product. Thus 
the achievements in the Tabor, Link-Belt, and Watertown 
Arsenal plants have been in no small measure due to bring- 
ing machines and methods of work into harmony with this 
technical improvement. Again, a comparison of profits is 
apt to be misleading, since gain varies with commercial re- 
lations quite as much as with good or bad management. 
Thus the Tabor Manufacturing Company and the New 
England Butt Company,^ two celebrated examples of plants 
operating under scientific management, have recently been 
under a cloud. If we refrain from attributing this to their 
management systems, then we should be cautious about 
crediting the profit in an undertaking to scientific manage- 
ment. There is furthermore a possibility that the reason 

1 See supra, p. iii. 



439] PRODUCTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 165 

why reorganization is attempted in a plant is because effi- 
ciency is at a very low ebb. Prosperous concerns rarely 
desire to change so fundamental a thing as their organiza- 
tion. Thus the Tabor enterprise was previously unprofit- 
able, and badly managed. Even where a plant is forging 
ahead, and there seems to be no question but that the in- 
crease is due to scientific management, it may well be that 
it was partly the individual genius of some unusually able 
man which rendered the reorganization successful. Other 
able men who' know nothing of scientific management might 
possibly be making just as great increases in the produc- 
tivity of their plants. 

These considerations are not mentioned with the idea of 
showing that scientific management has failed to increase 
productivity, for they do not prove that. They are de- 
signed merely to point out the difficulties connected with 
accepting as at all exact many of the various estimates as 
to what the system has accomplished. We should profit by 
the experience of those who once thought that they could 
make such calculations with reference to the Santa Fe, but 
who have long since been convinced that the problem is 
too complicated for even a rough solution. 

There are, however, certain general conclusions which 
may be stated with reference to the power of scientific 
management to increase the national income. There can 
be no question but that there are great numbers of men 
who are glad to do far more work than has been their cus- 
tom, in return for extra pay amounting to 20 per cent, 30 
per cent, and up. The fact that employers are eager to 
give them this bonus shows that their increased productiv- 
ity is greater than — let us say — 30 per cent. Indeed, it 
seems probable that on many kinds of work the increased 
worth of employees runs well up towards 100 per cent. 

Before jumping to conclusions as tO' how great an in- 



l66 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [440 

dustrial advance can be effected by the working-out of this 
scheme, one must take into consideration the fact that not 
all the employees in any shop can be put on a bonus. Fur- 
ther, only a small per cent (according to Taylor,^ 17 per 
cent) of this country's industry is even a field for interest- 
arousing devices. Such are needed only where industry is 
organized on a considerable scale — "coordinated," as Tay- 
lor put it — and hence subject to the evils of ordinary 
wage systems and amenable to improvement under scien- 
tific management. The desirability of the speeding-up 
side of scientific management is further somewhat ques- 
tionable. There is probably a net gain to the men, or they 
would not take it up. But there is a cost. And a world 
in which everybody exerted himself twice as much, would 
hardly be an ideal triumph of man over his environment. 

So it is that, while the greatest gain is perhaps still along 
the first side of scientific management, more hopes are con- 
nected with the second phase, which aims to put brains 
rather than muscle into the work. Close supervision is in- 
deed increasing the productivity of workers to a degree of 
great consequence in the industrial world. But when man- 
agement joins hands with invention, and draws to itself 
talented men, who not only study the orthodox technique 
of industry, but also simplify, rationalize, and coordinate 
the activities of all the members of the working force, then 
scientific management becomes the architect of a technical 
and social mechanism which knows no limit of perfection. 
It adds force to the process of cumulative change, whose 
discoveries may carry us into regions of which we do not 
yet dream. Most of this is, of course, in the future, and its 
value can only be determined as industry after industry is 
conquered and re-conquered. The achievements of the 
past, however, suggest a lucrative development. 

1 Testimony before the Industrial Relations Commission, April, 1914. 



441 ] PRODUCTIVITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 167 

The hope for this second phase of scientific management 
is in general greatest where industry is on a large scale 
and under a centralized authority. Specialization may then 
be carried farther; more widely applicable studies may be 
made; a more refined coordination is practicable/ It does 
not follow that all the gains of centralized industry come 
only when there is one financial control. Knowledge may 
be unified through the pilgrimages of experts from place 
to place, picking up intelligence here and distributing it 
there. The advantages of specialization and large-scale 
production may be attained by very small concerns, which 
manufacture for sale to others, much as one department of 
a modem factory manufactures for other departments. As 
business is engaged in at present, however, the different 
branches of an industry can be operated more smoothly 
under a single financial control. 

If the scientific determination of methods of factory 
operation is found to be especially profitable in connection 
with large-scale production, it is possible that this very fact 
will cause an enlargement of the latter field. Centraliza- 
tion may be pushed, simply to render possible the gains of 
scientific management. Scientific management may further 
be a very potent force towards concentration, inasmuch as 
its extensive records furnish a check upon the faithfulness 
of employees in such a way as to eliminate much of the 
economic loss said to accompany big business. Scientific 
management may, in short, create its own field, and the 
productivity of the system may prove much greater than an 
estimate obtained by calculating the gain possible in each 
plant as industry is now organized would indicate. 

Some persons, looking forward into the distant future, 

* Morris L. Cooke says that in the past the printing industry has been 
slow in making improvements because the large number of small es- 
tablishments fosters conservatism. 



1 68 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [442 

have been moved to declare that the development of scien- 
tific management will eventually prove to have been as 
epoch-making as the invention of machinery. This claim 
we would think futile if for no other reason than the fact 
that scientific management itself would never have come 
into existence had it not been for the creation of modern 
industry, through the industrial revolution. All that the 
system may claim for itself must in turn be attributed to 
the invention of machinery. In addition to this, scientific 
management is not distinct enough from science, industrial 
technique, and the earlier forms of management, to justify 
its being regarded as an original and independent thing 
like the industrial revolution. Especially in connection with 
the more advanced achievements of the future would it be 
hard to draw a line between the effects of the new man- 
agement and those of a great host of other contemporary 
movements. We must, therefore, be content to^ regard 
scientific management as part of a general progress, a pass- 
ing form, which, long before it has realized its potentiali- 
ties, will have outgrown some of its features and merged 
the rest with those of other systems, losing its own iden- 
tity in that of a greater stream.^ 

1 To give Mr. Taylor's view as to the productivity of scientific man- 
agement: It has already "been introduced in a great number and 
variety of industries in this country, to a greater or less degree, and 
in those companies which have come under scientific management it is, 
I think, safe and conservative to say that the output of the individual 
workman has been, on the average, doubled." (Testimony before 
special House committee. Hearings, p. 1389.) In the future, " The 
general adoption of scientific management would readily .... double 
the productivity of the average man engaged in industrial work." 
{Principles of Scientific Management, p. 142.) Not only would this 
be true with regard to manufacturing establishments, but also " the 
same principles can be applied with equal force to all social activities : 
to the management of our homes; the management of our farms; the 
naanagement of the business of our tradesmen, large and small; of 
our churches, our philanthropic institutions, our universities, and our 
governmental departments." {Ibid., p. 8.) 



CHAPTER VII 

Scientific Management as a Solution of the Labor 

Problem 

In various passages in the preceding chapters attention 
has been centered upon the attempt of scientific manage- 
ment to arouse the initiative of the individual workman. 
This task, it should be noted here, and not the existence 
of unions, constitutes, according to Mr. Taylor, the most 
serious problem of factory management. Thus, risk in 
production ^' arises not sO' much from the evident misman- 
agement, which plainly discloses itself through occasional 
strikes and similar troubles, as from the daily more insid- 
ious and fatal failure on the part of the superintendents to 
secure anything even approaching the maximum work from 
their men and machines." ^ It may be said, therefore, that 
in explaining elementary time study, task-setting, and the 
bonus, we have already discussed what the organization 
experts regard as the solution of the big end of the labor 
problem. There is, however, another " labor problem." 
Scientific management not only claims to better the rela- 
tions between the individual and the management, but it 
also professes to find a solution for the strike problem, and 
to effect vitally the tendency of workmen to organize. 
This, the real '' labor problem," ^ as the term is commonly 

* " A Piece-Rate System," Transactions of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, vol. xvi, p. 860. 

' We have in this treatise (somewhat arbitrarily) subtracted from the 
term " labor problem " its broader significance which involves the gen- 
eral welfare of the working classes, 

443] 169 



170 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [444 

used, will be the subject of discussion in the present 
chapter. 

I. THE VIEWS OF THE ORGANIZATION EXPERTS WITH RE- 
SPECT TO TRADE UNIONS 

One can get the point of view of the organization ex- 
perts respecting trade unions only by first looking, as if 
through their eyes, at the industrial conditions against 
which their system is a protest. When Frederick W. Tay- 
lor decided to develop a scientific management, his analysis 
of ordinary industrial relations started with the observation 
that antagonism amounting almost to war now separates 
employers and men. The primary reason for this state of 
affairs is the fact that both profits and wages are drawn 
from one fund, the excess of selling price over expense. 

Thus it is over this division of the surplus that most of the 
trouble has arisen . . . Gradually the two sides have come 
to look upon one another as antagonists, and at times as even 
enemies — ^pulling apart and matching the strength of the one 
against the strength of the other.^ 

The natural gulf between employers and men is widened 
because the men have an idea that it is to their interest to 
restrict output. The attempt to restrict output, Taylor de- 
clares, dates back to the introduction of the power-loom, 
the fear that machinery would cause unemployment having 
then bred bitter opposition and much violence on the part 
of the impoverished hand-weavers. Though the abler labor 
leaders of to-day hold that improvement in manufacturing 
technique is beneficial to all, they, too, are on their guard 
against the creation of high records by workmen, lest these 
be used as an excuse for cutting piece-rates or speeding 
up the men. 

1 Taylor, Hearings before Special Committee of the House of Repre- 
sentatives to Investigate the Taylor and Other Systems of Shop Man- 
agement, p. 1388. 



445] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM lyi 

Conflict over the division of the surplus, and this struggle 
to raise or lower output, together with the often inhuman 
policy of manufacturers towards hours and working con- 
ditions, have made it necessary for the employees to organ- 
ize. Industry has been rent asunder by the warfare be- 
tween employers' associations on the one hand, and labor 
unions on the other. Taylor recognized this development as 
natural under the circumstances, certainly as far as the men 
were concerned. He was not bitter in his attitude towards 
either leaders or men, as evidenced by the following typical 
statement : ^ ". . . while I shall have to say quite a little 
in the way of blame as to the views and acts of certain 
labor leaders during my talk, in the main I look upon them 
as strictly honest, upright, straightforward men." More- 
over, many years earlier, when Taylor could not yet have 
had his later strong motive for courting favor with labor 
men, he said : ^ 

The writer is far from taking the view held by many manu- 
facturers that labor unions are an almost unmitigated detri- 
ment to those who join them, as well as to employers and the 
general public. The labor unions — particularly the trades 
unions of England — have rendered a great service not only to 
their members, but to the world, in shortening the hours of 
labor and in modifying the hardships and improving the 
conditions of wage workers. 

However, labor unions were founded and owe their present 
usefulness to the existence of the above state of warfare, 
an industrial system which, according to Mr. Taylor, is 
entirely wrong. Mr. Taylor, therefore, acknowledged that 
under prevailing circumstances unions are desirable. But, 
in his view, the circumstances themselves need to be 
changed, and can be changed. 

1 Hearings, op. cit., p. 1380. 

' " A Piece-Rate System," Transactions, vol. xvi, p. 882. 



iy2 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [4^5 

The central idea in Taylor's new industrial system is the 
substitution of '' harmony " for '' antagonism " : the de- 
velopment of a new '' mental attitude " on the part of the 
employers and the employees towards the work, according 
to which they cooperate instead of contend with one an- 
other. The virtue in scientific management that is said to 
bring about this change is, first, the elimination of grounds 
for contention by determining through scientific analysis 
the proper task, wage, and working-day for each individual, 
the results being determined according to the laws of 
human nature and in a spirit of fairness and liberality; 
and second, the introduction of a positive teaching that the 
management should cultivate good feeling and mutual un- 
derstanding in its relations with the men. The more ob- 
viously influential of these two means of encouraging better 
relations is the first; it is effective directly in that it de- 
stroys grounds for dispute; and indirectly, in that the 
accompanying enlargement in the numbers and activity of 
the management means that more personal attention may 
be given to the men, and more of the men may be promoted 
to positions of responsibility. Mr. Taylor, however, laid 
more stress on the second cause, and not without some justi- 
fication; for the dozen or so leaders most prominent in the 
scientific-management movement have indeed been unusu- 
ally well disposed towards their men, and it is this attitude 
which is partly responsible for the good feeling which 
prevails in their shops. But whichever be the explanation 
adopted, there is abundant testimony to the effect that the 
alleged harmony does in many cases materialize ; and so it 
must be dealt with as a reality, and given due recognition 
as a possible solution of the labor situation.^ 

1 While visiting the shop of the Link-Belt Company, the writer was 
strongly impressed by the cordial feeling existing between the manage- 
ment and the men. The superitendent, as well as the president of the 



447] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM 173 

Under the system thus described, what place do the sci- 
entific-management experts reserve for the trade union? 
Scientific management may permit the organizations to re- 
main; but, if" so, they are at least to be shorn of all their 
more important former functions. As one reason for 
this, the experts explain that scientific management is too 
complicated for the men to understand; therefore they 
should have no control over it But a much more funda- 
mental reason why the unions must be devitalized is that 
under the new system there is nothing for them to look 
after. Harmony has now taken the place of antagonism. 
The great questions of wages, hours, and tasks are to be de- 
cided by science rather than by war. The one real problem 
— that which is basic in all industry everywhere — is to in- 
crease the output, to make the surplus so enormously great 
and the share of each individual so considerable, that there 
will no longer be a temptation — as indeed there never has 
been a use — to quarrel over the division of the profits. In 
attaining this one great end management and men are 
equally interested. The welfare of each individual is the 
gain of every other. All are co-partners. 

Among the various persons cooperating, the scientific- 
management men say that the more intelligent should rule ; 
the workmen should leave the working-out of the science 
of wages and tasks, as well as all important direction of 
industry, to those best fitted for the same, namely, the 
management. Is it not ridiculous tO' decide how a shop 
should be run by '' counting noses " ? What possible in- 
telligence could be added through the collective bargain? 
In short, the philosophy of scientific management holds 

company, professed to know all the employees by name. The super- 
intendent has taken a personal interest in their individual welfare, tried 
to help various ones to good positions, and frequently given more 
thought to the men's interests than have the latter themselves. 



174 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^^g 

that a good management, like a good father, directs those 
under its care in ways more satisfactory than the latter 
could themselves choose. Above all, workmen should be 
treated individually and according to their personal pecu- 
liarities, not " herded " together in masses. 

Thus, while Taylor expressed himself as willing that 
unions should exist to carry on educational and welfare 
work among their members, he was, as a matter of fact, op- 
posed to organizations of the type that concern themselves 
with wages, hours, and output. As these are the prime 
ends of modem unionism, we may conclude that organized 
labor has met with scientific management's disapproval.^ 

Another, and perhaps a sounder, way of looking at the 
situation is that expressed by H. K. Hathaway. He says 
that to organized labor in itself scientific management has 
no objection, but that the body of labor-union doctrine and 
policy is permeated by opposition to progressive industry.^ 
It is because scientific management and the trade unions 
are seeking opposite ends that they are hostile.^ 

^ '* Mr. Godfrey. Can you say in one syllable what the relation of the 
labor unions should be to scientific management? 

" Mr. Taylor. Of all the devices in the world they ought to look 
upon scientific management as the best friend that they have. It is 
doing in the most efficient way every solitary good thing that the labor 
unions have tried to do for the workman and it has corrected the one 
bad thing that the unions are doing — curtailment of output. That is 
the one bad thing they are doing." Testimony before special House 
committee, Hearings, p. 1508. 

' It is against certain tendencies of trade-unionism most fully exem- 
plified in England that Taylor lodged his strongest protest: He said 
that an investigation covering thirty trades showed that English work- 
men produce less than one-third as much as American workmen. (Tay- 
lor, testimony before Industrial Relations Commission [Washington, 
April, 1914], typewritten Hearings, p. 1225.) The English situation 
Taylor regarded as a triumph of trade-union principle. 

3 For the views of the trade unions with respect to scientific manage- 
ment, cf. H. B. Drury, "Organized Labor and Scientific Management," 
Industrial Engineering, March, April, May, 1914. 



449] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM 275 

2. A SKETCH OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZED LABOR 

The story of the actual relations between scientific man- 
agement and organized labor is shorter than might be ex- 
pected considering the strength and conflicting ideals of the 
two forces, for the reason that until recently the move- 
ments have not had many points of contact. Thus Phila- 
delphia, the birthplace of scientific management, the home 
of Taylor and a group of other leaders, and the seat of the 
most advanced development of the system, is not a strongly 
unionized center. H. K. Hathaway, speaking of machine 
shops, testified before the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
sion that he did not know of a closed shop in the city.^ 
Likewise in the case of the Bethlehem Steel Company, it 
was said that in the early part of 19 10 not a single em- 
ployee was a member of a trade union; ^ and we are told 
that on the Santa Fe railway the bonus system does not 
apply to any union men.^ 

Though for a long time there was thus little or no direct 
contact in connection with which an issue could develop 
between scientific management and organized labor, the 
new system may, nevertheless, have sometimes been used 
to prevent the possibility of unions forming, or to ward off 
strikes. Harrington Emerson was called to the Santa Fe 
immediately following a strike among the machinists, 
boilermakers, and blacksmiths. The Tabor Manufacturing 
Company had been inconvenienced by labor troubles 

* Evidence Taken by the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 
Matter of Proposed Advances in Freight Rates hy Carriers (1910), p. 
2672. 

' Report on Strike at Bethlehem Steel Works, Sen. Doc. no. 521, 61 
C, 2 S. 

3 According to Vice-President W. B. Storey, Correspondence, March 
17, 1914. 



1^6 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^^q 

shortly before it sought reorganization. One of the best 
known experts once spoke to us with satisfaction of the 
manner in which, in a certain factory where there had been 
a number of union men, the labor organization had, upon 
the introduction of scientific management, gradually disin- 
tegrated. Frederick W. Taylor himself told the Industrial 
Relations Commission (Hearings, April, 19 14) that mem- 
bers of labor unions had left in large numbers at Midvale, 
Bethlehem, Tabor, Link-Belt, and to a certain extent every 
company where he had ever been. Thus, while for many 
years there appears to have been no rupture between the 
two movements, it is possible that from the very first scien- 
tific management was here and there retarding the growth 
of the union idea, through building up loyalty to the man- 
agement. 

It is of interest to note the effects of scientific manage- 
ment on the labor problem in those earlier years when its 
development was carried on comparatively quietly; for the 
investigation shows that between the system and the men 
who' work immediately under it there is no original cause 
for quarrel. From 1882 (when the system was started) 
until 191 1, a period of approximately thirty years, there 
was not a single strike under it,^ and this in spite of the 
fact that it was carried on primarily in the steel industry, 
which was subject to a great many disturbances. For in- 
stance, in the general strike in Philadelphia, one man only 
went out at the Tabor plant, while at the Baldwin Loco- 
motive shops across the street two thousand struck.^ This 
is said to be typical of experiences which have occurred 
again and again. 

1 Taylor, before special House committee, Hearings, p. 1390. 

^Hathaway, before Interstate Commerce Commission, Evidence, p. 
2671. 



45l] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM lyy 

That the early gulf between scientific management and 
organized labor was partly a matter of accident, or at least 
one not incapable of being bridged over, would seem to 
be indicated by the fact that with the spread of the system 
into new parts of the country and into a greater variety of 
industries, the principles have at points met with a rather 
favorable reception from union men. In most shops, in- 
deed, the numbers of union men are small and their influ- 
ence insignificant/ But in certain cases, as in bricklaying^ 
and printing,^ the leading features of scientific manage- 
ment have been introduced into closed shops. In one case 
at least the collective bargain has been utilized.* 

In general, how^ever, the passing years have brought in- 
tensified opposition rather than cooperation between scien- 
tific management and organized labor. Serious opposition 
may be said to have been begun in 191 1, immediately after 
certain testimony presented before the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission revealed to the country the strong move- 
ment setting towards scientific management. National 
labor leaders, wideawake as to what might happen in the 
future, decided that the new movement was a menace to 
their organization, and at once inaugurated an attack. The 
opposition reached its culmination when in 191 3 and 19 14 

^ The managers may state that they ihave a few union men, but don't 
know exactly how many — in fact don't pay much attention to such 
matters — ^which shows, of course, that the unions might as well not 
exist. See Hathaway's testimony before Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, Evidence, p. 2672. 

2 See supra, pp. 125-6. 

' John H. Williams, before Interstate Commerce Commission, Evi- 
dence, p. 2781. 

* See infra, p. 187. Scientific management operating under the col- 
lective bargain, is, however, a very rare phenomenon. Mr. Taylor 
more than once declared his ignorance of any such cases. See testi- 
mony (January, 1912) before special House committee. Hearings, 
p. 1444, and again, p. 1508. 



1^8 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [4^2 

the annual conventions of the American Federation of 
Labor adopted resolutions condemning the system. The 
arguments advanced, having to do with the human side of 
industrial life, will be discussed in the next chapter. Here 
it is only necessary to state that the present opposition was 
started in very high labor quarters, that it was probably 
adopted more as a policy for the future than because of 
serious damage done in the past, and that it has centered 
about the installation of scientific management in the Gov- 
ernment arsenal at Watertown. The attack there, having 
gained the ear of Congress, has met with at least tem- 
porary success.^ But outside of the Government service, 
the opposition does not seem to have retarded very much 
the introduction of the system. In plants that have had 
a mind to install it there has usually been no serious 
trouble. However, the agitation has aroused in working- 
men, as well as in the general public, an interest in the 
question as to whether scientific management is right or 
wrong. Especially is the public desirous of solving the 
problem of the relationship between scientific management 
and the unions.^ 

3. IS SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT A SATISFACTORY SUBSTI- 
TUTE FOR THE COLLECTIVE BARGAIN? 

To state the precise point at issue it may be said that 
during the last half-century the leaders of public opinion 
in matters concerning industrial relations have come to 
look with favor upon the organization of workmen. Even 

^ For outline of the principal events connected with this struggle at 
Watertown, see supra, pp. 140-1, and for evidence as to the true situa- 
tion there, infra, pp. 188, n., 190-3. 

' The Industrial Relations Commission spent four days taking testi- 
mony on scientific management. 



453] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM lyg 

Taylor recognized a field for trade-unionism under the pre- 
vailing type of factory management. But now we are 
told that a new organization of industry called scientific 
management does away with the importance of labor organ- 
izations, and especially obviates the necessity of that whole- 
sale method of reaching an agreement as to wages, hours, 
and working conditions, known as the collective bargain. 
Perhaps, therefore, the most important subject for inquiry 
connected with the entire topic of scientific management is 
the question as to how the new system is likely to affect 
the need for, and the character of, the activity of labor 
unions. 

a. Scientific Management Removes from, Labor Some In^ 
centives towards Organization 

Scientific management, especially of the true sort, may 
be expected to weaken the forces which have in the past 
tended to solidify the ranks of labor. In the first place, 
centralization of authority in the hands of the management 
loosens the bond of common trade secrets and craft skill, 
which now makes brothers of the small group of men en- 
gaged in any given occupation. Especially is this true 
where unskilled persons are put at work formerly requir- 
ing long experience, the men being employed simply to 
work, and not because they have any specialized knowledge. 

While trade lines are broken down under scientific man- 
agement, or there is a tendency in this direction, this does 
not mean that all the men are placed on one common footing 
as over against the members of the management. On the 
contrary, there is a greater differentiation than ever before 
between the various employees. In fact, instead of there 
being two large groups of persons, one at the top and the 
other at the bottom, a goodly number of employees are scat- 
tered in between. The management itself contains high 



l8o SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [4^4 

positions for some of the abler workmen, a considerable 
proportion of the men being employed as functional fore- 
men. The others are given specialized work to do varying 
in character and remuneration, payment being where pos- 
sible on an efficiency basis. Thus there is a change in the 
center of gravity which makes the management side much 
heavier. Class lines by occupation are blotted out, and dis- 
tinction according to individual capacity is substituted. By 
promotion — or the pursuit of it — overflowing energy is 
drawn off. Indeed the situation corresponds to that which 
exists in agriculture, where the relatively large number of 
farmers, as compared with ''hands," opens a way for ever}^ 
one to reach the top, thus forming an effectual safety-valve 
against the formation of class sentiment. 

As long as scientific management is installed in only a 
small portion of industry, the fact that the system en- 
deavors to pay the men working under it higher wages 
than they would earn in competing plants makes it difficult 
to see what benefits could be derived by organization. It 
is the policy of the employer to give voluntarily whatever 
remuneration may be necessary in order to secure not only 
the time, but also the good-will of the workmen. This 
rate is necessarily considerably higher than the men could 
gain by force. Therefore the favored few working under 
it are apt to think it prudent to '' let well enough alone." 

As scientific management is introduced more generally, 
this last argument of course vanishes. However, it is prob- 
able that in the future, even more than in the present, the 
up-to-date employer will find it a paying policy to relieve 
some of the conditions which have in the past spurred men 
on to collective action. Thus the relations between the men 
and the management will be made more pleasant, and much 
of the incentive to organize will be removed. 

Above all, scientific management deals with the indi- 



455] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM igi 

vidual, while the hope of the labor union rests upon the 
consolidation of the masses. 

b. Scientific Management, However, Does Not Adequately 
Perform the Functions of the Collective Bargain 

From this enumeration of the difficulties which a trade 
union meets when it tries to operate under scientific man- 
agement, we turn now to criticize scientific management's 
own effort to solve the labor problem. It may be pointed 
out first that, contrary to the conviction of the advocates 
of scientific management, the relation between management 
and men is not inherently one of harmony; nor should 
their relationship be a pure antagonism; but employers 
and employees have many interests, some of which are 
nearly identical, others directly conflicting: it is necessary 
for both that the factory continue in operation; yet an 
employee might easily desire twice or a hundred times as 
big a wage as the management might desire to give. 

In the second place, it is questionable whether there is a 
" scientific " way in which a correct reconciliation of in- 
terests can be effected. Mr. Taylor's method of dividing 
the surplus, even if quite satisfactory to the workman, is 
scientifically exact only in the sense that it gives the high- 
est possible returns to the management. The scheme of 
wage payment under scientific management consists in giv- 
ing the usual day rate, and then adding, for successful 
completion of a set task, a bonus ranging from 20 or 30 
to 100 per cent, according to the kind of work.^ Now, the 
" scientific " features of this plan are the determination of 
a proper task, and of a proper percentage of bonus. The 
determination of a proper time for the doing of a given 
piece of work may indeed be undertaken according to scien- 

^ For an enumeration of different kinds of work and their bonus 
percentages, see supra, p. 68. 



l82 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [456 

tific methods. But when it comes to a decision as to the 
number of hours in the working-day, the day rate, and the 
percentage of bonus, it is misleading to apply the term 
" scientific." The length of the working-day should be 
fixed with a view to enabling the employee to get the most 
satisfaction out of life, as well as the greatest possible 
work out of his limbs. The general level of day wages is 
the resultant of countless bargains; there may indeed be 
no close bargaining under scientific management, but the 
process is certainly being carried on by someone some- 
where. Should scientific management spread to the whole, 
or even to a considerable part, of an industry, these bar- 
gains would have to be carried on as a part of the system 
itself, and the setting of the day rate would then be shorn 
of even the semblance of scientific character. As regards 
bonus determination, Taylor explained the " science " to 
the special House committee as follows : ^ 

Half a dozen men were set at performing certain tasks 
for a period of six months on a premium of 15 per cent. 
Another set of men were put on trial at a 20 per cent in- 
crease, another set at 25 per cent, another at 30 per cent, 
another at 35 per cent, and so forth. Now, of the half a 
dozen who were working at 15 per cent 

almost all of them came at the end of the six months and said, 
" Now, see here, Fred, I have tried that scheme of yours, 
and I do not like feeling all the day long that I am tied down 
to any old pace, or to a new way of doing things. I should 
prefer going back to the old way." ... At the 20 per cent 
increase almost all of the men asked to return to their old 
conditions and their old pay. At the 25 per cent increase 
more than half of them stuck to the new conditions. ... At 
the 30 per cent increase all but one stuck to the new plan. 

^ Hearings, p. 1498. 



457] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM 183 

At 35 per cent my rememberance is that all stuck. ... It was 
in this way that we got at these percentages. I call that a 
scientific experiment. . . . 

But is this science? Is it not rather a scientific way of 
bargaining? Has not Mr. Taylor simply asked men to do 
work of very large value, and then found out by trial the 
least amount for which they will cheerfully perform it? 
Would this rough-and-ready solution of the wages ques- 
tion, which has worked so well where all are enjoying a 
careless prosperity, meet the situation when neighboring 
concerns begin to adopt the same methods, and costs and 
receipts are counted more closely by both men and man- 
agement? We would summarize our discussion thus far 
by expressing the belief that the ^'harmony" and ''science" 
of Taylor's system, though very valuable, are really but 
the oil and skilful handling that make the machinery of 
wage-determination run smoothly. Possibly for a time the 
amazing productivity of the system has brought the dollars 
so fast that the recipients have been content to watch them 
roll in. But if the system becomes at all general, employees' 
ideals as to income will expand, and with the opening of 
more shops in which the system has been installed there 
will be more competition for their services — not to men- 
tion the possibility that managers' ideals as to wages may 
contract. Then wages will again be what the men can get 
and what the employers have to pay. 

In the final analysis, then, scientific management's 
method of handling the labor problem consists in reaching 
an understanding between the employing corporation on 
the one hand and the individual workman on the other. 
Perhaps the management is very considerate in its dealings 
with the men; but whether that is so or not, the point to 
be noted here is that there is no appeal from the manage- 



l84 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^^g 

merit's decision. It is a case of the individual liking his 
treatment by the management, and staying, or disliking the 
conditions of his employment, and quitting. 

According to many, this relationship is a fit one for the 
basis of an industrial system. They think that it is fair 
to all, because any individual who is dissatisfied can with- 
draw. But does such a relationship between a huge cor- 
poration capitalized at many millions perhaps, on the one 
hand, and a poor workman on the other, place the two on 
an equal footing? Suppose that the workman does not 
want to work on Sundays : Is the management likely to 
care very much if he registers a complaint? Suppose that 
he feels that he is underpaid : Would it not often be a worse 
evil to pack up his belongings and move away from his 
old home to some distant place to get beyond the authority 
of his former employer? As a matter of fact, the indi- 
viduals of to-day are too many, and the corporations of the 
country too few, to^ permit of an equal contest. Thus noth- 
ing less than the entry of the Federal Government intO' the 
parcel-post field could bring down the rates of the express 
companies. In the case of the railroads, the establishment 
of tariffs by competition has of necessity been abandoned, 
and control has been placed in the hands of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission. Of course few workmen are as 
helpless against their employers as shippers against a rail- 
road. Nevertheless such a combination as the United 
States Steel Corporation, when unrestrained by labor or- 
ganizations, has a power over the lives and welfare of its 
employees resembling that of a court of justice. 

The question amounts to simply this : Is it wise to place 
so much authority in the hands of a corporation, even 
though it be scientifically managed and of a kindly dispo- 
sition ? It must be remembered that the board of directors 
represent the financial interests. Where there is a conflict 



459] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM 185 

between human and moneyed interests, is it reasonable to 
rely entirely on the judgment of those who represent the 
latter? In minor matters it might do. But it is not the 
spirit of the American people to tolerate such a procedure 
when it comes to anything that is worth while. In modern 
times little can be done by individuals working alone, and 
so for the purpose of promoting all their leading interests, 
men join forces in innumerable organizations. Is there 
any reason why matters of wages, hours of labor, and 
working conditions should be an exception tO' the general 
rule? Certainly these things are as important as any 
others. It would seem that in the case of workingmen the 
need for organization would be greater than in most cases. 
For the individuals have neither the time nor the aptitude 
to bargain cleverly with their employers or to keep in touch 
with the possibilities in competing fields : they need leaders ; 
they need organization. 

4. THE POSSIBILITY OF COORDINATING TRADE UNIONISM 
AND SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 

Though scientific management is based on a philosophy 
that is at variance with that of organized labor, and though 
its features appear to turn the activities of workmen into 
other channels than those of trade-unionism, it would be 
quite possible, if the necessity arose and both sides w^ere 
willing, tO' bring the two into cooperation. Such a step 
could be taken much easier to-day than some years ago be- 
cause of certain changes in the methods of the scientific- 
management men themselves. Thus instead of the differ- 
ential rate, which would be rather hard tO' bring under the 
collective bargain, the management experts have voluntar- 
ily reverted to the day-rate principle, supplementing the 
same with a bonus whose rate is uniform for an entire 
trade. Both the day rate and the rate of bonus could very 



l86 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^50 

easily be made the objects of the trade agreement. The 
setting of tasks jointly would be neither so necessary nor 
so simple; yet this, too, could probably be brought under 
the system. 

To the objection that the men do not understand scien- 
tific rnanagement, and therefore could not speak with ref- 
erence to it through their unions, it may be replied that 
the unions would not need to take the initiative in putting 
the system into operation. Organized labor would have to 
go into the matter only far enough to make terms with 
the management; and even under the present system the 
workmen must be able to do as much. If men are tO' work 
under scientific management at all, an understanding must 
be reached regarding wages, tasks, etc. ; and why should it 
be harder tO' do this collectively than individually? 

It may be said, therefore, that the main obstacle to the 
introduction of the collective bargain as a part of the scien- 
tific-management system is not that the former could not 
possibly be applied, but that the management experts regard 
is as worthless. Thus Taylor said : ^ '' Under these cir- 
cumstances, then, [cooperation between management and 
men] collective bargaining becomes a matter of trifling im- 
portance. But there is no reason on earth why there should 
not be collective bargaining under scientific management 
just as under the older type, if the men want it." General 
Crozier thinks that scientific management should even 
facilitate collective bargaining. For when the time study 
has been made, the question as to how much is to be paid 
for work can be settled by agreement; and the result of the 
time study should furnish the workmen with a vastly better 
ground upon which to bargain about wages. ^ 

1 Before special House Committee, Hearings, p. 1444. 

2 Report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1912. 



461] SOLUTION OF THE LABOR PROBLEM 187 

The collective bargain is not only capable of being ap- 
plied ; it has been actually tried out. David Van Alstyne is 
responsible for the f ollov^ing account : ^ 

I made an agreement with the molders' and blacksmiths' 
union, which was the ordinary trade agreement, but the prin- 
cipal feature of it was that the union committed themselves to 
a maximum output of which the company was to be the judge, 
and the basis of it was the Emerson standard time system, and 
a bonus paid for efficiency about two-thirds in addition to a 
straight day's wages. ... In order to facilitate matters, we 
agreed to make the standard times by means of a demonstra- 
tor, and if there was no objection to that, we put the time 
into effect, and it became the standard ; it was provided for in 
the agreement that the shop committee could object at any time 
they wanted to, and if the shop officials and the shop committee 
could not agree, it was further provided that it would be offi- 
cially settled by me and the head of the union. 

This last method never had to be. resorted to. There was 
no provision for reference of disputes to a third party. The 
above is the one example, as yet given publicity, of scien- 
tific management brought under the collective bargain. 

The general public, which desires to see industrial feudal- 
ism supplanted by industrial democracy and nevertheless 
sees many good things in scientific management, hopes that 
the slight tendency to cooperation which has been thus far 
manifested will be strengthened, and that the better fea- 
tures of the two movements will eventually become the 
complementary parts of a single solution of the labor 
problem. 

^Testimony before Industrial Relations Commission, typewritten 
Hearings, p. 1680. 



CHAPTER VIII 
The Human Side 

A verdict as to the merits of scientific management 
should obviously be based on the changes that the system 
has itself introduced. If one sees under scientific manage- 
ment men working at tasks that are monotonous, or if the 
jobs described seem ugly and repulsive, or do not give suffi- 
cient play to ambition, those failings are not necessarily the 
fault of the reorganization. They may be sore spots in- 
herent in the prevailing industrial order. 

Of the changes which scientific management has intro- 
duced into industry, some need no discussion in a chapter 
dealing with the effect of the system upon the welfare of 
employees. They are recognized by all as harmless, and, 
in so far as they increase the productivity of industry, they 
clearly conduce to the public benefit. The main problems 
which here deserve attention are those which grow out of 
stop-watch time study and the giving of premiums to in- 
dividuals who increase their output. One charge made 
against these devices is that they speed up the workmen to 
an abnormal pace. Another is that to have one's acts timed 
by a stop watch is humiliating, and that the system, in its 
enforcement, makes machines or automatons out of men.^ 

* " . . . the opponents of the Taylor system had virtually concen- 
trated their attack upon the time-study and premium features under 
trial at the Watertown Arsenal, claiming that those features operated 
against the health and well-being of the employees . . . alleging that 
these features are only devices for ' speeding up ' the workman and 
reducing him ultimately to the level of a * machine ' or * beast of bur- 
den '." (General Crozier. in Report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1912.) 
188 [462 



463] ^^^ HUMAN SIDE 189 

I. THE CHARGE THAT EMPLOYEES ARE OVERWORKED 

The scientific-management authorities announce that by 
their system machine output is multiplied by from three to 
five/ that barehanded laborers sometimes perform nearly 
four times as much work as formerly,^ that among em- 
ployees as a whole the individual rate of production is on 
the average doubled/ These claims place on the shoulders 
of Mr. Taylor's followers the burden of proving that they 
do not abnormally speed up workmen. 

The scientific-management leaders cheerfully assume this 
task. The effort of the individual, they say, is not increased 
in nearly as great a proportion as is the output. Especially 
in machine shops, much of the apparent intensification of 
effort is nothing more than specialization ; the workman is 
able to get more out of his machine because he is relieved 
of that portion of the work which fomierly called him 
away.* Much of the improvement, too, is due to the way 
in which the machines are operated, greater efficiency being 
the result of scientific study appHed by the management. 
Instructions as to the best manner of handling everything 

1 This is so in the case of the Tabor Manufacturing Company ac- 
cording to testimony of Hathaway. Evidence Taken by the Interstate 
Commerce Commission in the Matter of Proposed Advances in Freight 
Rates by Carriers (1910), p. 2667. 

2 Pig-iron handling. See s^pra, p. 78. 

3 Estimate of Taylor. See supra, p. 168. 

* " Formerly, when we started a job, he had first to frequently hunt 
up the foreman to find out what he would do next. Then he might 
have to hunt up his materials and get them to the machine. After 
that he had to decide how the job was to be done, and look up his owin 
tools for it. He had to grind his own tools and all of the things that 
we now do in the planning department for him he had to do himself 
to a very large extent, while his machine was standing idle. As it is 
now, the machine runs along on other work while we are making- 
preparations for his job ahead." (Description of Tabor Manufactur- 
ing Company, Hathaway, Evidence [Rate advance cases] p. 2668.) 



I90 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^5^ 

connected with the work, and a careful thinning-out of 
strength-taxing features, have been important factors gov- 
erning the increase in production. 

Where the workman does put forth more muscular 
energy, it is claimed that this is simply due to the elimina- 
tion of waiting or loafing; that is, better routing has pre- 
vented delay, or improved industrial relations have elimi- 
nated " soldiering." It is emphatically denied that the 
workman moves faster, or at any one moment exerts him- 
self any harder than was considered normal under the old 
regime. 

The student of scientific management is fortunate in 
being able to find evidence of a highly reliable sort as to 
whether or not these claims are just. In the first place, the 
special House committee — composed of W. B. Wilson, for- 
merly a labor leader (and since appointed Secretary of 
Labor), Wm. C. Redfield, a manufacturer (later appointed 
Secretary of Commerce) who has written somewhat dis- 
paragingly of scientific management, and one other con- 
gressman — reported after extended hearings that the Tay- 
lor and other " systems " had not " been in existence long 
enough" for the committee to "determine with accuracy 
their effect upon the health and pay of employees," and 
that the committee did not "deem it advisable nor expe- 
dient to make any recommendations for legislation upon 
the subject " at that time. Upon this report General Cro- 
zier comments : ^ 

In other words, the committee, properly zealous to protect the 
well-being of the employees, failed to find any ground in the 
representations made by the opponents of the system upon 
which to base condemnation or serious criticism of the meth- 
ods in effect or contemplated by this department, or any con- 
ditions which called for remedial legislation. 

1 Report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1912. 



465] ^^^^ HUMAN SIDE 191 

That is, scientific management, after an ever-widening ap- 
plication for thirty years, could not yet be charged with 
having produced victims of overwork. 

The irresponsible character of many of the complaints 
made in regard to the effects of scientific management upon 
health is shown by General Crozier's reply to one such 
charge which had been included in the petition of the 
Watertown Arsenal unions of June 21, 1913/ 

Complaint No. 13. — This is a complaint that the majority 
of the men are failing in health. This is distinctly not true. 
There is no evidence of it, and no complaint of it. A number 
of men questioned on the subject denied it, no man being 
found who claimed or admitted that his health had been in- 
juriously affected; and no man has personally claimed that he 
has been overworked. In regard to the possibility of over- 
work, it is at least extremely improbable. In machine work 
particularly, where as stated before most of the premium 
jobs are found, the machinist usually stands for a considerable 
time looking on while the machine is doing the work. Such 
a job can be divided into machine time and handling time, and 
the machine time can be subdivided into that in which the feed 
is by hand and that in which the feed is by power. It is dur- 
ing the time that power feed is operating that the machinist 
simply stands and watches the work. Ten jobs, taken at 
random, have been examined and the following have been 
found to be the percentage which the power-feed time, that is, 
the resting time, is of the whole time required for the job: job 
No. I, 5.75 [ ? sic'\ per cent; job No. 2, 68 per cent; job No. 3, 
40 per cent; job No. 4, 58 per cent; job No. 5, 35 per cent; 
job No. 6, 46 per cent; job No. 7, 78 per cent; job No. 8, 71 
per cent; job No. 9, 80 per cent; and job No. 10, 54 per cent. 
Of course during the power-feed time the machinist has to 
fix his attention upon his work ; but it is not strained attention, 

1 Memorandum for the Secretary of War, submitted by General Cro- 
zier, Sept. 6, 1913. 



192 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [466 

and is not of a wearing character. These figures coupled with 
the facts of moderate working hours, frequent hoHdays, and 
generally good working conditions show the practical impossi- 
bility, in the general case, of overworking a machinist. 

Perhaps the most direct way of arriving at the facts as 
to overwork — though it unfortunately involves an analysis 
of conflicting claims — is to sound the attitude O'f the Water- 
town and Frankford employees. Though it is alleged that 
the " worst " features of scientific management have not 
yet been introduced at Watertown, and no one claims that 
the system as a whole has been introduced at the Frank- 
ford Arsenal, yet official reports show a great decrease in 
cost of operation; and if, therefore, the type of scientific 
management known to these arsenals is unobjectionable^ — 
and even attractive — to employees, the system evidently has 
a great and proper field. 

The surface facts are, that in June, 191 3, the Watertown 
employees petitioned for the abolition of the Taylor sys- 
tem, and in January, 191 5, several hundred employees of 
the Frankford Arsenal petitioned for its continuance. In 
both cases, however, the employees' action was almost cer- 
tainly inspired from above or without, and the question 
has therefore been raised as to the genuineness of the ver- 
dict. The discussion pro and con in the House (February 
5, 191 5) and Senate (February 23) may be summarized as 
indicating (i) very strenuous opposition to the system on 
the part of general labor officers, (2) no certain evidence 
of a prevailing sentiment against it on the part of actual 
employees (though a few were shown to be opposed to it), 
and (3) a considerable measure of local enthusiasm for it. 

Senator Weeks, whose home is three miles from the 
Watertown Arsenal, presented evidence ^ to the effect that 

1 Congressional Record, vol. 52, pp. 4890-91. 



467] ^-^^ HUMAN SIDE 193 

while he had originally received a great many complaints 
from his constituents on this matter, on February 12, 191 5. 
the very man who had been retained "to act as their counsel 
in the matter of their petition for the abolishment or change 
of the Taylor system/' wrote to him his discovery that the 
workmen were " opposed to the amendment to the Amiy 
appropriation bill providing for the practical abolishment 
of time study and premium in Government shops. . . ." 
The senator had himself received letters from constitu- 
ents, employees in the arsenal, containing passages such as 
these: (i) ''I have heard of no one that has been injured 
by a ' stop watch,' nor from over- work. The few agita- 
tors (shop lawyers) that caused this bill to be sent to Con- 
gress . . ." (2) "There has been some opposition made 
by a few self -constituted labor leaders who take it on them- 
selves to regulate matters to^ suit themselves without any 
consideration or regard for the rights of others." (3) "It 
seems that this gigantic move, to abolish the system is 
backed by some outside selfish crew . . ." And again by 
the same writer : " There were 349 employees of this place 
who signed a petition to abolish the system. If the number 
who did not read that petition, and consequently did not 
know what they were signing, together with the number 
who signed it just to be agreeable, were deducted from the 
349, there would be nobody left but the framers. It is 
proven beyond a doubt that after three years' experience 
with the premium system the conditions here are far better 
than any place of the kind in this country." On the other 
hand, the senator had received no complaints for a year, 
except from outside labor organizations. 

There was, furthermore, little proof to show that the 
Frankford employees had signed under pressure, or through 
ignorance, and considerable to show that their attitude was 
spontaneous. 



194 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^53 

The evidence as to strain under scientific management 
which the public can most readily avail itself of, however, 
is that furnished by a number of magazine writers, who^ — 
like Miss Wyatt — have visited this or that establishment 
operating under scientific management, thinking that they 
would find men and women overworked; but after making 
personal observations, and conducting a more or less thor- 
ough inquiry among the workers themselves, have reported 
that conditions in the shops investigated contrasted favor- 
ably with those in other plants. 

There are, however, certain developments of scientific 
management which one hesitates to approve. Mr. Taylor 
states that of the men who formerly handled pig iron at 
Bethlehem, only one-eighth would have had endurance 
enough to complete the tasks set under scientific manage- 
ment. This extreme situation was of course due to the 
fact that human beings differ greatly in their aptitude for 
this kind of work, and the task was designed for only 
those who were the fittest; and there is no evidence that 
any of these men were any the worse physically for their 
unusual exertions. Nevertheless, the specialization of cer- 
tain men to do as much heavy work as their physical 
capacity permits is a thing that one would dislike to see 
carried very far. There must be a cost of some kind, even 
for the fit — a considerable cost; otherwise they would not 
refuse to do the work except for a sixty per cent addition 
to their pay. The question arises whether the cost — which 
may be the dwarfing of part of the higher life of the men — 
is not one that it is a loss to the community to allow them 
to bear. Perhaps only good has resulted in the specific in- 
stances in which men have undertaken these jobs; but it is 
a side of scientific management which would not form a 
part of an ideal civilization, and which most people would 
prefer to see curtailed. 



469] ^^^ HUMAN SIDE 195, 

There is reason to believe that the scientific-management 
experts themselves hold much the same opinion, and that 
the enforcement of extremely difficult standards is not as 
common now as formerly. Thus that powerful incentive 
to maximum production, the differential rate, has given 
place to the milder stimulus of the Gantt bonus system, and 
the still more flexible modifications in use at Watertown 
(until 191 5), and in the plants reorganized by Harrington 
Emerson. There is now less emphasis upon the selection of 
none but unusually able workmen, a growing precedent in 
favor of retaining practically unchanged the former staff 
of employees, and a vigorous insistence on the setting of 
tasks that any normal person can accomplish. 

To conclude this discussion, scientific management means 
for most persons an increase in the energy which they put 
into their work. There is, however, no evidence that em- 
ployees are injured physically, or that the effort is especi- 
ally disagreeable. Still most men would not choose the 
new system for its own sake. It is the association in 
thought between larger production and greater pay that 
makes men glad to turn their wits away from side issues, 
and concentrate them on making their movements count 
towards output. When transformed by this thought, work 
under the new system is perhaps not as tedious as work 
under the old; for it is not the effort, but the spirit, that 
makes work heavy or light. 

2. THE CHARGE THAT MEN ARE MADE AUTOMATONS 

An objection to time study in itself would be trifling. 
An athlete does not feel humiliated because a stop watch 
records the seconds and fractions thereof which it takes 
him to make a run. AnA so with the workman, it is not 
the making of the studies, but the purpose for which they 
are to be used, that appears odious. 



ig6 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^^q 

The first fear respecting time study, that it will be used 
to speed up abnormally the employee, has been already 
covered. The other indictment against it is that it is the 
first and most powerful instrument in the introduction of 
a new order of industry, in which skill, initiative, and life 
itself, are divorced from the workmen, and radiate only 
from a central planning department, the men becoming 
mere machines or automatons. Some young college man 
measures the time taken for each swing of the arm, con- 
siders the necessity or uselessness of every turn of a bolt, 
decides, perhaps, how long the workman should rest after 
an exhausting move. Then there is made out an instruction 
card which tells the workman exactly what to do without 
relying on his own judgment. Eight functional foremen 
stand over him to guide him at every turn so that he can 
use no independence. In short, work is no longer the self- 
expression of the worker's individuality, its wholesomeness 
is destroyed, and life becomes a monotonous, unhealthful 
routine. 

With regard to these charges, we should first remind the 
reader that, as we have pointed out elsewhere, the extent 
to which planning is carried under scientific management is 
not nearly so great as the public sometimes imagines. In 
the second place, there was considerable monotony and sub- 
ordination of one individual to another before Mr. Taylor 
began his work. Nevertheless, if the introduction of scien- 
tific management is even a small step in the direction of 
increasing the drudgery of work, it is a matter in which 
the public should feel concerned. What are the facts ? 

In the first place, a word should be said as to the likeli- 
hood that control over a man's movements by a higher 
authority will lead to nervous and physical discomfort. 
One would almost imagine, judging by some of the attacks 
made on scientific management, that men are held in a vise 



471] THE HUMAN SIDE 1 97 

and that a boss standing by pulls the strings to let the 
workman know when to move the one arm and when the 
other. A little reflection, however, is enough to convince 
any one that men who are paid high wages for rapid, spir- 
ited work will not be interfered with in any way that is dis- 
agreeable to them. To carry motion study to such a point 
would not only involve prohibitive expense, but would 
defeat its own end. One could imagine a greedy employer 
giving a man too difficult a task; but it would be nonsense 
to imagine him fettering his hands or grating on his nerves. 

While it would be unreasonable tO' think of scientific 
management as carrying its supervision of work down to 
an automaton level, where movements would be directed to 
the point of physical discomfort, or men would take on a 
slave-like lack of spontaneity, it is not so self-evident that 
the system will leave unimpaired the higher intellectual life. 
Actual monotony, indeed, is probably not as great under 
scientific management as under other systems; and the evi- 
dence bears out the assertions of Taylor and others that 
the " mental revolution " carries with it a sympathy and 
fellowship between men and management, which makes 
conditions in a shop unusually attractive. Nevertheless, 
men of enterprise, men who would not only chafe under 
restraint but who are also ambitious to exert an influence 
in the outer world, would probably hesitate to enter the 
lower ranks of a system where they would be given little 
liberty to try things their own way; they would shun a job 
v/hich meant constant work at a narrow range of activi- 
ties and no more than a very vague comprehension of the 
industry as a whole. The thirty per cent bonus would be 
purchased at too dear a price. 

We are inclined to think, however, that scientific man- 
agement is the more practical, and, for the present at least, 
the more commendable, in that it has adapted itself to a 



198 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [472 

state of civilization in which men as a rule are obviously 
not of this ambitious, intellectual type. Mr. Taylor, in his 
unflinching and rather uncanny way, classified men into 
groups as distinct from one another as are the different 
breeds of horses : Thus, corresponding to the dray horse — 
or, better yet, the ox — there is the man with the muscle 
suitable for handling pig iron and the mentality incapable 
of understanding percentage; corresponding to the grocery- 
wagon horse there is another type of man suitable for a 
somewhat higher grade of work ; the trotter has his human 
counterpart; and so on up to the top. This distinction, 
while unpleasant, is not altogether fanciful : there are dif- 
ferences between men; and it is probable that the majority 
of workmen would prefer to avoid the trouble of system- 
atically planning complicated work. They need guidance. 
They are perhaps better off for remaining at one employ- 
ment and confining themselves to a limited range of activ- 
ities. 

Yet it is probable that many of these men, if they had 
enjoyed better opportunities earlier in life, would not now 
be of the " type of the ox." While scientific management 
does well to adjust itself temporarily to human nature as 
it finds it, possibly with the more general extension of edu- 
cational advantages much of this analysis of men into types 
will eventually break down; and a socially meritorious 
scientific management must take this possibility into ac- 
count; it must soften, not perpetuate nor intensify, class 
distinctions. So it is to be hoped that in the future, rules in 
regard to work will be imposed only where there are clear 
advantages to be gained ; and finally, that as rapidly as pos- 
sible men may be led to follow good methods on their own 
responsibility, because they realize that they are the best, 
and not because they are forced to do so. 



473] ^^^ HUMAN SIDE 199 

3. PROMOTION SKILL WAGES 

It is the policy of shops operating under scientific man- 
agement to fill the higher positions by promoting able men 
from within the ranks. Inasmuch as the proportion of 
good positions under this system is much greater than in 
the case of the ordinary forms of management — because 
of the functional foremen and planning department — the 
chances for promotion are decidedly better. Furthermore, 
such promotion as there is should be on a more just basis 
under scientific management than elsewhere, because its 
more adequate records covering the work of each indi- 
vidual enable the head men to know just who are the most 
capable workers. The capable but rather unobtrusive man 
in fact ranks higher under scientific management than he 
would elsewhere; he is worth more; for the things that he 
needs for his work are supplied as a matter of course; and 
it is not necessary, as in some shops, to use personal pres- 
sure to get others to treat one fairly: hence true efficiency 
— and not audacity — counts towards output. 

One of the objects of having functional foremen — as 
well as certain other of the features of scientific manage- 
ment — is to enable inferior men to do what was formerly 
regarded as skilled work. Thus we are told that at Beth- 
lehem ninety-five per cent of the rough machine work was 
done by low-priced men under expert guidance.^ For the 
inferior men who are put at such work this means higher 
wages and greater skill than they would otherwise attain. 
For the class of persons who formerly performed the jobs 
it means that that much of their field has been lost. 

The elimination of the need for skill is one of those 
changes which benefits the race at large, but is apt to work 

1 Hearings before Special Committee of the House of Representa- 
tives to Investigate the Taylor and Other Systems of Shop Manage- 
ment, p. 1488. 



200 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [4-^4 

hardship upon individuals. For of the on-coming genera- 
tion, those who seek special training can pick out some 
other field, while those who can not or do not prepare 
themselves for any definite work will be very glad for the 
increase in the demand for unskilled men. There is thus 
little loss, and the public gains because of the reduced 
price of the finished product The thought of the future 
gain is, however, a poor consolation for those who already 
have their training in the abandoned line. These persons 
are apt to be thrown out of employment and to suffer 
greatly, and for no fault of their own. 

So much for the antedating of skill in the abstract. As 
a matter of fact, up to the present time the share that 
scientific management has had in this process has been 
accompanied by little if any inconvenience to workmen. 
One reason for this is the fact that the new system requires 
a long time for its introduction. Changes in the personnel 
of most shops naturally occur comparatively rapidly, so 
that if the scientific-management men exercise a little care, 
they are able to contract the field for skill without a dis- 
charge of any former employees. Moreover, the better 
workmen must be retained to do the work which still re- 
quires special knowledge, and to serve as functional fore- 
men. We may conclude that while scientific management 
is ever seeking to get along with as little skill as possible, 
at the same time it takes skill to accomplish this very end; 
so that it is rather hard to say whether in the long run 
there will be required a widened or lessened distribution 
of it. We may be sure of this much, however: that there 
is a shifting of the points at which skill is applied; and 
that of the higher grades much more is required. In all 
probability, the changes will continue to go on without 
much unusual suffering to anyone. 



475] ^^^ HUMAN SIDE 20I 

As to wages, Taylor claimed that the men working under 
scientific management receive from 20 to 100 per cent more 
than men of equal caliber working under the ordinary types 
of management/ Except for men doing very strenuous 
manual work, however, we may remark that the great mass 
of employees seem to be at the lower end of this range: 
25 per cent would, perhaps, be a typical average for the 
increase in machine shops. ^ The rise in wages, even at the 
latter more moderate estimate, is seen to be a considerable 
one. 

This point being settled, there next arises the more im- 
portant question : Will the high wages of scientific man- 
agement prove permanent, or are those critics of scientific 
management right who say that after a little these rates 
will be cut, and eventually workmen will receive, in spite 
of their increased speed, wages no greater than in the first 
place ? 

It is not probable that the near future will witness a 
radical reduction in the wages paid under scientific man- 
agement; for certain companies which have tried such a 
policy have found to their sorrow that the men would not 
turn out the enlarged product unless their rewards were 
kept at about the above figures. The whole situation may 
be quite different, however, if scientific management is ever 
introduced generally throughout the country. The work- 
men would then have no alternative system which they 
could fall back upon ; and they might be compelled to work 
in the new way if they were to obtain satisfactory employ- 
ment of any kind, and to do so regardless of whether wages 
had been substantially increased or not. On the other 

^ Testimony before the Industrial Relations Commission, April, 1914. 

2 See statistics for the Tabor Manufacturing Company, supra, p. 131 ; 
for the Link-Belt Company, p. 135 ; and for the Watertown Arsenal, p. 
138. 



202 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [476 

hand, it is equally possible that if the number of plants 
using scientific management grows until there is a scarcity 
of workmen able to turn out these large outputs, their 
wages may be forced up still higher. 

At any rate, the present method of fixing wages under 
scientific management is a transitional one, and the forces 
lying behind the wage-determination of the future will 
probably be more complex. There is no reason why the 
workman should fear that scientific management will bring 
anything but favorable changes in the level of wages. Yet 
his greatest gain will probably come, not in the form of 
higher pay, but in that of cheaper commodities. 

4. THE HUMANIZING OF MANAGEMENT 

The discussion should by this time have alleviated, or 
cleared away altogether, most of the fears which have been 
entertained regarding the effect of scientific management 
upon the welfare of employees. As a matter of fact the 
movement is in the very opposite direction : as far as there 
is anything distinctive about scientific management, it 
represents a shifting of thought from machines to men. 
Whether rightly or wrongly, the claim of the system for 
special merit is based upon its seeing more truly the deeper 
motives that actuate men; upon its adaptation of factory 
conditions to conform more perfectly to man's comfort, 
productive efficiency, and satisfaction; upon its coming 
down more intimately to the temper and capacity of the 
individual worker. Scientific management is thus, first of 
all, a study of man, of his nature, of his ideals. It is based 
upon the principle that cheerful workmen are more profit- 
able than sullen ones, that to fit the work to the man is 
better than to try to fit the man to the work, that the indi- 
vidual is a more satisfactory unit of study and adminis- 
tration than the mass. 



477] ^^^ HUMAN SIDE 203 

As long as scientific management retains these ideals as 
the essence of its program — and the lives of the leaders 
testify that they have practiced them up to date — it is hard 
to see how the system could be anything else than agree- 
able and beneficial to the workmen. If step number one 
is the humanizing of industry, step number two a response 
on the part of the men to this change, and step number 
three the realization of profit by the management, then if 
the system is to work at all, it is only because in the first 
place the shop is made to appear to the men a better place 
tO' live and work. 

But fifty years from now, when Taylor, Gantt, Barth, 
Cooke, Dodge, and the others will have been followed by 
men who know not the kindly spirit of these pioneers, when 
shop management is once again regarded only as a money- 
making proposition, and when the new men look about 
them to see whether Taylor was right in saying that money- 
making and harmony and human welfare are not incon- 
gruous, what then will be the situation? An enlightened 
self-interest, reinforced by the demands of a growing public 
sentiment, will probably dictate that as working machines, 
men be kept in good condition, that hours and tasks be 
reasonable, that the work be varied and pleasant. But 
when it comes to a fair division of the profits between 
employer and men, when it comes to the things that will 
make for the larger intellectual and social life of the work- 
ingman, it may be doubted whether scientific management 
will in itself offer anything better than other systems. Its 
contribution will be an increase in productivity which will 
make better conditions possible. But the hope of bringing 
these better conditions into actual existence should in the 
future, as in the past, be founded upon something more 
substantial and equitable than the altruism of the factory 
manager. While scientific management is thus hardly a 



204 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^-rg 

complete solution of the problem of human welfare in fac- 
tories, the influence of its leaders should nevertheless prove 
to be an exceedingly powerful force in the right direction/ 

1 After explaining that he had been putting into scientific manager- 
ment every cent of surplus income and a little more for a good many- 
years, including payment of "the salary of quite a number of [men] 
for several years while they [were] learning the introduction of scien- 
tific management" — all this without hope of profit — Mr. Taylor then de- 
clared himself as follows : 

" And I want to make it perfectly clear, because I do not think it is 
clear, that my interest, and I think the interest of every man who is in 
any way engaged in scientific management, in the introduction of the 
principles of scientific management must be first the welfare of the 
working men. That must be the object. It is inconceivable that a man 
should devote his time and his life to this sort of thing for the sake 
of making more money for a whole lot of manufacturers." Testimony 
before Industrial Relations Commission, April, 1914. 

Scientific management's vision of leadership is rich in promise for 
the future. The unexplored possibilities of this field are nowhere indi- 
cated more clearly and profoundly than in Professor Edward D. Jones' 
resourceful paper on " The Relation of Education to Industrial Effi- 
ciency," read before the American Economic Association in December, 
1914, and published in the March, 1915, supplement to The American 
Economic Review. 



CHAPTER IX 
Other Criticisms and Conclusions 

i. scientific management but one factor in 
social life 

If our criticism has on the whole been favorable to 
scientific management, it is because we believe that there 
is a large amount of good in the system. To maintain 
that it is perfect would be to overlook the fact that it is 
hardly yet beyond its formative period. Since Mr. Taylor 
first began its application, about 1882, there have been 
numerous and important changes. There is no reason 
why there should not be other alterations in the future. 

While scientific management seems to us a force for 
good, it should not be regarded as a panacea capable of 
curing all industrial and social ills. On the contrary, it 
should be supplemented by social agencies whose field of 
operation is wider than a single shop or a single manage- 
ment. Especially along the lines of industrial and cul- 
tural education, of regulation by the state of the condi- 
tions of employment, and of other movements designed 
to round out the lives of workmen, to better their sur- 
roundings at work, at home, and during recreation, is 
there a possibility of solving directly many of the problems 
that scientific management approaches only through the 
roundabout road of increasing output. We must not 
forget that the end of production is consumption. We 
must not think so much about running our factories at 
479] 205 



2o6 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [480 

full Speed that we neglect the simpler and more direct 
methods of increasing human satisfaction and welfare. 
It would be demanding too much of scientific management 
to expect that it make the most of development along 
all of these broader lines. Through making industry 
more productive the shop manager may furnish the ma- 
terials for, but others may be better qualified to superin- 
tend the reconstruction of, our social life. 

Furthermore, if other agencies be permitted to become 
strong, so that scientific management is held in check, it 
will not be necessary for the public to be greatly con- 
cerned as to exactly how far scientific management should 
be permitted to extend its operations. The future may 
be trusted to solve that problem. Grant that it is a loss 
to have men work harder ; but that, on the other hand, 
it is a gain to swell the volume of output. If there are 
well-organized movements backing each of the opposing 
interests, we may safely leave to their interaction the 
determination of precisely how much of one advantage 
may be surrendered for the sake of the other. Through- 
out life, men are confronted by situations in which they 
realize that they cannot have everything that is attractive, 
but must give up one profit to attain another. Is it de- 
sirable, for instance, to live in a city? The city man longs 
sometimes for the freedom of the wilds or for the quiet and 
beauty of the country. But that, on the whole, the oppor- 
tunities of urban life more than make up for the unques- 
tioned sacrifices which are involved is attested by the fact 
that people continue to live in cities. So with scientific 
management. On the one hand it demands effort, on the 
other offers reward. The extent to which it will be car- 
ried will be the result of an equilibrium of these two, as 
well as of many other forces. 



48 1 ] OTHER CRITICISMS AND CONCLUSIONS 207 

2. THE LARGER SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT 

Scientific management's first great significance is in 
connection with the problem presented by the size and 
complexity of modern industrial organization. There 
would not have been much of a field for scientific man- 
agement in an age when all men worked for themselves 
or were associated in groups of ten or twenty. But the 
system is an outgrowth of the concentration under one 
ownership and control of operations carried on over a 
large stretch of territory and participated in by thousands 
of employees. Scientific management may do for work 
what money has done for exchange ; as the one fixes the 
values of commodities, so the other establishes labor val- 
ues, values that are definite and that can be traded in 
throughout world industry. The Eastern capitalist can 
know that he is getting his money's worth when he pays 
an Arizona section hand to drive a spike ; the foreman of 
an excavating gang can quote the market value of the 
dumping of a scoop; the heads of great corporations 
may be sure of a proper return from their smallest and 
remotest working unit. In an age when industrial re- 
lations are becoming ever more complex, the coordinat- 
ing value of a system such as this is full of high promise. 
It strikes at the root inefficiency of big business. It 
opens up new worlds for industrial integration. 

Scientific management is again significant because it is 
teaching the world a new way of gathering wealth. In 
the past the way to become rich has too often been that 
of exploiting one's fellows. But under scientific manage- 
ment — perhaps more consciously than in the case of any 
other of the rising modern movements — one notes a 
shifting of emphasis towards efforts to increase to^al 
wealth. Scientific management's method of increasing 



2o8 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [482 

total output is in part, to so adjust the inner workings 
of the factory, that much of the old activity is rendered 
unnecessary, while the remaining tasks are rationalized 
and coordinated so that output is disburdened of much of 
its human labor. 

It is perhaps true that the scientific-management men 
overemphasize the capacity of this phase of their system 
to rid the age of its pressing social problems. It is not 
so much the lack of wealth as the pitiable unevenness in 
distribution that is disturbing modern tranquillity. The 
invention of the past has already given the present, re- 
sources adequate enough to enable all men to live in a 
certain degree of comfort and with considerable satisfac- 
tion, provided the social income were more equally 
divided, and the one half of the people were not rendered 
discontented by observing the more fortunate lot of their 
betters. The people of to-day lay a false stress upon the 
possession of material wealth. If individuals could only 
cease vying with each other in the amount of expense 
which they display in their living, is it not possible that 
they could easily attain to a greater happiness than would 
follow an augmentation, at great effort, of the stock of 
material commodities ? 

Yet, generally speaking, material welfare is the founda- 
tion of culture. Wholesome food, comfortable lodging, 
freedom from long or exhausting labor, and opportunities 
for travel and education, are the requisites of art, Htera- 
ture, science, and the beautiful in life and thought. In 
seeking to produce material things at less cost, scientific 
management is sounding the keynote of a new campaign, 
in which all should join, and in the success of which lies 
great hope. Men have hitherto thought that there was 
certain work to be done. Scientific management may in 
years to come show that this is a myth — that a new spirit 



483] OTHER CRITICISMS AND CONCLUSIONS 209 

of study and enterprise may reduce human toil to an 
inconsiderable minimum, — perhaps eliminate the toil- 
someness altogether. 

Scientific management may also be said to present an 
object lesson in the gains which follow coordinated effort. 
If it is possible in a shop which has already been under 
one management to effect such great savings through 
giving more attention to routing, to planning, to in- 
struction of workmen, and so forth, how much more 
could be achieved if the various branches of industry now 
competing were managed scientifically in their relations 
one to another. If not an argument for socialism, sci- 
entific management at least suggests the promising field 
open to those who would devote their lives to a study 
of how industrial life as a whole may be operated more 
economically and satisfactorily. 

Scientific management can not, however, accomplish 
all or a part of these things without introducing problems 
of its own. The system means concentration of author- 
ity and subordination of the individual. It means that the 
value of the clever man will be greatly increased ; that 
there will be more very high-salaried men ; and that all the 
way down to the bottom, there will be a new differenti- 
ation as to pay. This situation is rather disturbing in a 
country of democratic ideals. Yet, inasmuch as the 
system calls for a closer cooperation and a more complete 
understanding between persons occupying different 
levels, the actual evils will probably not be great, and 
may be atoned for by a considerable good. Such regret- 
able consequences as follow must be excused as almost 
inevitable when a world in which the capacities of men 
are so different is stirred to really vigorous action. 



2IO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [^g^ 

3. THE ORIGINALITY OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 

There is a tendency in some quarters to regard scien- 
tific management as not different in kind from common 
sense and skill applied to industrial undertakings. Thus 
to quote one opinion : 

There have been no new discoveries in scientific manag-ement 
of industrial institutions. Common-sense men have used 
common-sense methods always. The term " scientific man- 
agement " is a catch-word which assumes that industrial 
institutions have not been scientifically managed — which is 
not the case. My experience and the experience of my friends 
has been that there has been no new element injected into the 
art of management. 

Now, of the mass of efficiency devices associated with 
the Taylor system, a large proportion are, to be sure, 
traceable to this or that extraneous source; Mr. Taylor, 
himself, was inclined to minimize the originality of his own 
system. But the observer who has noted how this man 
has inspired followers, and who has studied the testimony 
of manufacturers who have introduced his system, must 
be convinced that, in addition to the minor devices, 
there are certain great unifying principles which are as 
original with Taylor as is an invention or a masterpiece 
of literature original with its author. These principles 
have been explained in one place and another in the 
foregoing chapters. The foremost are the setting of a 
** task " for each employee, and the determination of what 
this task shall be by making a very careful analysis of 
just what enters into the work — preferably using the 
stop watch to discover the " unit times " required for 
the various work elements. This alone is enough to 
form the basis for a system — especially when it is coupled 
with the idea of carrying the study down to the humblest 



485] OTHER CRITICISMS AND CONCLUSIONS 211 

worker, to his simplest jobs, and to their minutest 
details. The " science " of the Taylor system may indeed 
be nothing more than ordinary intelligence and common 
sense; but it is because the intelhgence is applied to 
these new and distinctive ends that scientific manage- 
ment may be pronounced original.' 

Of course Mr. Taylor was not independent of his age. 
The opportunity for his work was presented by the con- 
ditions which followed the industrial revolution, and, 
more recently, by the rise of large-scale industry and 
specialized manufacture in this country, coupled with the 
growing differentiation into social classes which by the 
eighties was already alienating the interests of work- 
men from the success of their employers. 

In several respects, too, scientific management may be 
characterized as having simply fitted itself into the pre- 
vailing currents of industrial evolution. Scientific manage- 
ment emphasizes the importance of steady, consistent 
work; but in this, the system is surely not a pioneer. 
We are told that among primitive peoples, sustained 
labor was entirely unknown ; but that conquest and 
slavery first imposed upon a portion of the population 
the necessity of application.'' The rigor of work under 

^ For a more detailed study of the originality of scientific management, 
cf. supra, Chapter II, pp. 30-52, where the earlier systems are described; 
pp. 54-63, where Taylor's central philosophy is given at length ; and 
pp. 64-5, where, in conclusion, Taylor's system is contrasted with those 
antecedent devices which come the nearest to being its prototype. 
Upon these passages, the conclusions in this chapter are in part based. 

' " And it may be safely inferred from all that is known of actual sav- 
ages and primitive peoples that prior to the period of social integration, 
and at the beginning of the period of conquest, mankind, both of the 
conquered and conquering races, were utterly incapable of sustained 
labor and had no conception of it." Lester F. Ward, Pure Sociology, 
2 ed., p. 277. 



212 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [486 

the earlier industrial systems was slight ; but its inten- 
sity has been constantly increased as society has become 
organized on lines more and more modern ; in the last 
century the tendency has been to make work more reg- 
ular and more solid. The rapid pace set by American 
workmen and their almost perfect concentration upon 
the work at hand has certainly paved the way for the ad- 
vance of scientific management. 

If there is any originality in scientific management's 
ideal as to work, it is in its emphasis on efficiency rather 
than strain. Scientific management is the culmination 
of a progress towards the utilization of scientific, rather 
than drive methods. The human machine, which was 
before blindly urged on until it broke, is now analyzed, 
and given work in accordance with its strength and 
special characteristics. 

Again, when scientific management proposes to recon- 
struct the way in which work is done, it is but following 
in the footsteps of such movements as the introduction 
of labor-saving machinery, and the establishment of 
chemical and physical laboratories. It has been possible 
to arouse interest in scientific management only because 
it has come to life in an age when men are filled with the 
idea that there is no limit to the wonderful things which 
they may achieve, if they only go about the task in the 
proper way. Mr. Taylor would have met with but slight 
success in a country where everyone believed in follow- 
ing the precedents handed down by his great-grandpar- 
ents. Scientific management is the product of an age of 
daring and innovation in industrial processes. 

Scientific management was foreshadowed, too, by the 
emergence of the specialist in matters of management. 
It would be possible to apply it only in a period when 
factories were being standardized to conform to the best 



487] OTHER CRITICISMS AND CONCLUSIONS 213 

existing practice. Scientific management has been 
brought in by the age of ** system." 

It follows that, while Mr. Taylor's system is as a whole 
original and unique, it borders at many points on com- 
peting ideas suggested by similar stimuli. Especially is 
this noticeable as time goes on and the world at large 
has been benefited by the earlier suggestions of the 
founder of scientific management himself. Others, both 
within and without the immediate Taylor following, 
acting under the impulse of his inspiration, have de- 
veloped the technique of shop management in this 
direction or that to a more advanced point than Mr. 
Taylor had opportunity to attain. Giving Taylor due 
credit for both his direct and his indirect influence, it 
would yet be folly to attribute to the one man the entire 
modern drift towards efficiency and analysis of work ; 
just as it is usually a superficial verdict that gives to an 
inventor the sole credit for having started industry along 
channels which but for his life would never have become 
known. 

Mr. Taylor's contribution consists in having seen more 
clearly, attacked more persistently, and solved with 
greater success problems of whose existence most other 
persons were but dimly aware. Among those who have 
been intimately associated with Taylor, there is manifest 
a stanch loyalty and respect for his leadership, that is 
ever strengthening his title to rank — if not as the creator 
— at least as one of the foremost spirits behind the 
modern efficiency movement.^ 

1 Elihu Root, for instance, {Congressional Record, Feb. 23, 1915, vol. 
52, p. 4887) deprecated the use of the term "Taylor system," inasmuch 
as the eflFort in this direction "was begun in our Ordnance Bureau long 
before Mr. Taylor was generally known." In support of the principle 



214 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT [488 

4. THE FUTURE 

The possibilities latent in scientific management have 
already been discussed in the chapter on the productivity 
aspect. Hov^r far such hopes v^ill actually be realized in 
practice and to v^hat extent the achievements vidll be 
regarded as "scientific management," — that is, of course, 
another question. It is at present evident that there 
will be many obstacles v^hich will impede progress. The 
unfriendliness of organized labor has been noted. The 
scientific-management men, strange to say, complain 
more of the opposition of employers. Besides being 
sceptical as to the merits of the system, those in author- 
ity generally hesitate to permit outsiders to reorganize 
their plants ; the result is that the innovations introduced, 
whether by the regular management themselves, or in a 
sporadic way by efficiency specialists, are apt to fall far 
short of conforming to any regular type. Even in plants 
where scientific management has been installed by the 
most skillful experts, as soon as the leaders are out of 
sight there is a tendency to drift back into old habits. 
Hence the growing insistence on having an "up-keep 
man," someone permanently connected with the staff, 
who will supervise efficiency features. Many go so far 
as to urge that the consulting specialists be eliminated 
entirely. Each plant, it is maintained, must solve its 
own problems. 

In view of these practical considerations, it would be 
very strange indeed if the scientific management which 
we have discussed is not in the future greatly transformed 
and differentiated. One may say that this or that thing 

involved, however, Mr. Root, who has been interested along these 
lines ever since he was Secretary of War, made one of the strongest 
appeals that has yet been presented. 



489] OTHER CRITICISMS AND CONCLUSIONS 215 

seems good and that the indications are that it will come 
into wide use ; but to maintain that scientific manage- 
agement, as it is now known, will one day dominate the 
industry of America or of the world, would be to make 
a hazardous prediction/ 

Nevertheless, it is certain that industry is in a general 
way moving in the direction of scientific management ; 
and there is a strong belief on the part of many inti- 
mately acquainted with present conditions that it will 
eventually arrive at many of the things described in this 
treatise. 

*For instance, the fundamentals of the Halsey "Premium System" 
frequently find a place beside elementary time study, motion study, rout- 
ing, and other scientific-management features, in a highly composite 
system. 



INDEX 



(Note: Consult analytical Table of Contents.) 



Acme Wire Co., lOO 

American Economic Review, 204 

American Engineer and Railroad 
Journal, I2y 

American Federation of Labor, 
140, 178 

American Locomotive Co., 94 

American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers, interest in manage- 
ment, 17, 30-32, z^, 38, .41, 54, 
66, 74; sci. man. applied to, 
io6n. ; support of sci. man., 119; 
report on sci. man., 145-147 

Army appropriations, sci. man. 
outlawed in, 141 ; see Congress, 
Watertown Arsenal. 

Arsenals, see Watertown Ar- 
senal, Frankford Arsenal, Rock 
Island Arsenal. 

Automatons, charge that men be- 
come, 159, 188, 195-197; see In- 
struction cards. Motion study, 
Planning. 

Babcock, G. D., 145 

Bancroft, J., works of, 94 

Bargain, see Collective bargain. 

Barth, C. G., 22n., 26, 92, 96-99, 
122, 130, 134, 138 

Bethlehem Steel Co., 26, 77-79, 
89, 92-94, 97, lion., 120-124, 
I56n., 175, 176, 194, 199 

" Betterment work," 126-129, see 
Santa Fe. 

Bibliography, on efficiency, 2on., 
21 ; foreign literature, 90, 148 ; 
Taylor's works. 91 ; Gantt's 
works, 96n. ; Gilbreth's works, 
113; Emerson's works, 117; 
other authorities, i8n., 19, 20, 
22n., 28n., 31. 32, 37n., 38, 42, 
49n., 65n., io8n., 117, 118, 122, 

491] 



I27n., 138, 139, 145, i46n., 149, 
162, I74n., 17s, I78n., i92n., 
204n., 21 in., 2i3n. 
Bicycle-ball-bearing inspection, 79, 

124 
Bonus to foremen, 94, 129, 140 
Bonus to workmen, place of, in 
sci. man., 24, 67, I47n., 166, 169; 
Gantt's invention of, 92-94; 
variations of, 115, 122, 125, 139, 
142; effect on output, 121, 165; 
effect on wages, 109, I23n., 129, 
I34» 135, 139, 144, 201 ; attitude 
of labor towards, 140, 177, 188, 
192, 193 ; debarred from arse- 
nals, 141 ; determination of, 182 ; 
under collective bargain, 185, 
187 ; effect on health, 189-195 
Brandeis, L. D., 15-18, 21, 82, 131 
Bricklaying, 79, 107, 109-111, 125- 

126, 159 
Brighton Mills, 95, 117 
Building trades, 26, 107, 108 
Bulletin-boards, 127, 133, see 
Routing. 

Canadian Pacific Railway, 94, 158 

Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- 
vancement of Teaching, 101-106 

Cheney Silk Mills, 95 

Class distinctions, sci. man.'s posi- 
tion with reference to, i72n., 
179, 198, 199, 204n., 209, 211 

Closed shop, sci. man. in, 177 

"Coaching" workmen, 159; see 
Motion study. 

Collective bargain, introduction 
under sci. man., 125, 177, 185- 
187 ; view of sci. man. respect- 
ing, 173 ; desirability of, 178-185 

Columbia University, I9n., 102 

Commons, J. R., ^gn. 

217 



2l8 



INDEX 



[492 



Concentration, see Industrial inte- 
gration. 
Congress, action of, concerning 
sci. man., 19, 140, 141, 177, 178, 
188, 190-193 
Consumers' League, Illinois, 142 
Cooke, M. L., 26, 101-106, 149, 153 
Cotton industry, 141-144, 158 
Crozier, Gen., 124, 138-141, 155, 

159, 186, 188, 190-192 
Curtis Publishing Co., 145 

Dartmouth College Conference, 
19 ; see Tuck School Conference. 

Day, C, 117 

Day & Zimmerman, 117 

Day rate, as basis of premium or 
bonus plan, 43-46, 51, 93, 94, 
115, 122, 125, 134, 135, 140, 185 

Day-work, 32, 33, 42, 54, 67, I39, 
156 

Departmental system, 162, 163 

Differential rate, 59-63; see Wage 
systems — Taylor's. 

Disciplinarian, shop, duties of, 86 

Dispatching, see Routing. 

Division of labor, 84-86, 103, 104, 
163, 167, 189, 194, 212 ; see Plan- 
ning, separated from perform- 
ing. 

Dodge, J. M., 22n., 118, 119, 135, 

137 
Duncan, J. C, 162 

Earle, Mr., 94 

Efficiency, proposed as name for 
what is now called sci. man., 
i8n. ; society organized to pro- 
mote, 19; bibliography on, 21; 
contrasted with sci. man., 114; 
employee's per cent of, 115; 
idea of, popularized, 117 

Efficiency Society, Inc., 19, 118 

Effort under sci. man., 189, 190, 
, 191, 195 ; see Initiative, Over- 
work. 

Elementary rate-fixing, 55, 6% 69, 
70 

Elementary time study, 55-59 ; see 
Time study. 

Emerson, H., 18, 22n., 108, 113- 
117, 126-129, 147, 148, 162, 187, 

195 
Emerson Co., 114 
Employees, attitude of, towards 



sci. man., 121, 126, 140, 143, 144, 
172, 176, 188, 191-193, 196 

Employers, attitude of, towards 
sci. man., 119, 120-124, 125, 128, 
129, 138, 214 

Employment, tenure of, 136, 160, 
200 

England, profit sharing in, yj ; 
premium plan in, 49; Rowan 
plan in, 50; trade unions in, 
171, I74n. 

Europe, profit sharing in, 2>7^ 39 J 
sci. man. in, 53, 90, 148; pro- 
gressive wages in, 65n. ; Taylor 
educated in, 88 ; influence of, on 
Emerson, 113 

Fairbanks Scale Co., 99 
Fatigue study, 78, no, 143, 190 
Feed of metal- cutting machines, 

definition of, 74n. 
Ferracute Machine Co., 144 
Forbes Lithograph Co., 144 
Foremen, as teachers, 83 ; scarcity 
of good all-around, 84 ; types of, 
under sci. man., 85, 86; bonus 
to, 94, 129, 140; selection of, 
199; see Functional manage- 
ment. 
Frankford Arsenal. 192, 193 
Franklin, H. H., Mfg. Co., 145 
Frederick, Christine, 28n. 
Froggatt, Morrison & Co., 117 
Functional management, i8n., 84- 
86, 103, 104, I25n., 132, 133, 137, 
161-163, 196 
Future, sci. man. in the, 166-168, 
179, 180, 187, 200, 201, 203, 204, 
205, 207-209, 214 

Gain-sharing, H. R. Towne's, 38- 

41, 48n. 
Gang boss, duties of, 85, 133 
Gantt, H. L., i8n., 22n., 26, 67, 92- 

96, 115, ii6n., 121, 122, 141, 142, 

Gilbreth, F. B., i8n., 22n., 79, 108- 
113, 125-126 

Gilman, N. P., 37, 38n., 4in. 

Godfrey, H., 117 

Going, J. B., 22n. 

Gompers, S., 140 

Government service, sci. man. in, 
see Watertown Arsenal, Con- 
gress. 



493] 



INDEX 



219 



Halsey, R A., 41-52, 540., 64, I55, 
2isn. 

Harmony, ideal of, under profit 
sharing, z^; under gain-sharing, 
39 ; under premium plan, 47 ; 
under sci, man., 2-^, 25n., 62, 63, 
144, 155, 172, 176, 181, 183; see 
Employees, attitude of. 

Harvard University, ign., 20, 88, 
102, 104 

Hathaway, H. K., 22n., 99, 100, 
130, I3in., 174, 175, i89n. 

Health, effect of sci. man. on, 
141-144, 196, 197; see Over- 
work. 

High-speed steel, Taylor-White, 
90, 137, 164 

House of Representatives, special 
committee of, to investigate sci. 
man., 19, 140, 190; action re- 
garding sci. man., 141 ; debate, 
192 ; see Congress. 

Human nature, Taylor's analysis 
of, 68, 84, 198 

Illinois Consumers' League, 142 
Industrial Engineering, 118 
Industrial integration, 167, 207, 

209, 211 
Industrial Relations Commission, 

9in., I23n., 136, I47n., 176, I78n., 

187, 204n. 
Industrial revolution, 168, 211 
Initiative, rousing of, 24, 66-69, 

loi, 153-156, 165, 169 
Inspector, duties of, 85, 133 
Instruction-card clerk, duties of, 86 
Instruction cards, 73-77. 122, 133, 

137, 158, 196 
Integration, industrial, 167, 207, 

209, 211 
Intellectual life under sci. man., 

197, 198 
International Association of Ma- 
chinists, 140 
Interstate Commerce Commission, 

rate-advance cases, 15-22, 140, 

177 

Jones, E. D., 204n. 
Journal of Political Economy, 20, 
io8n., I49n. 

Kendall, H. P., 22n., 144 
Kent, R. T., i8n., 22n., 118, 145; 
Wm., 38n., 48, 117 



Labor, see Automatons, Bonus to 
workmen, Class distinctions. Di- 
vision of labor, Employees, atti- 
tude of, Employment, Harmony, 
Health, Leadership, Organized 
labor. Promotion, Restrictions 
on output, Selection of employ- 
ees. Skill, Strikes, Supermen, 
Time study. Wages, Wage sys- 
tems. 

Leadership, 83, 173, 204n. 

Leclaire, M., 37 

Leroy-Beaulieu, M., 65n. 

Lewis, W., 130 

Library of Congress, 20n. 

"Line and staff," Emerson's, 115, 
162, 163 

Link-Belt Co., 27, 98, 99, 100, 117, 
134-138, I72n., 176 

Low-priced labor, no, 199; see 
Wages. 

McClure, S. S., 142 

McElwain, W. H., I7n. 

Machinery, 168, 170, 202, 212 

Machines, charge that men be- 
come, see Automatons. 

Machinists, International Associa- 
tion of, 140 

Management, importance of, 25n., 
31, 137, 168, 215; Emerson's 
type of, 115, 127; Gantt's, 95, 96; 
Gilbreth's, 112; Taylor's, 9in.; 
see Functional management. Sci- 
entific management," Shop Man- 
agement," Wage systems. 

Manhattan Press,_ 145 

" Mental revolution," the, 25n., 
144, 172, 197 ; see Harmony. 

Merrick, D. V., 117 

Metal-cutting, 73-77, 90, 92, 97, 

137, 164 
Methods, improvement of, 24, 69- 

82, 102, 157-161, 166, 167, 189, 

207, 208 
Meyer, H. H. B., 20n., 2in. 
Micro-motion study, in 
Midvale Steel Co., 22, 23, 70, 88, 

92, 99, 120, 176 
Mixter, C. W., 118 
Morrison, C. J., 117 
Motion study, examples of, 77-79, 

80, 106-108, 109-112, I23n. ; place 

in sci. man., 159; effect on 

workmen, 197 ; see Time study. 



220 



INDEX 



[494 



Navy appropriations, sci. man. 

outlawed in, 141 ; see Congress, 

Watertown Arsenal. 
New England Butt Co., iii, 164 
Non-industrial applications of sci. 

man., 19, 28n., 101-106, 112, 148, 

i68n. 
Non-repetitive work, 58, 156, iS/n. 

O'Connell, J., 140 

Order of work or route clerk, 
duties of, 'jz, 133 

Ordnance, Chief of, see Gen. Cro- 
zier. 

Organization, 82-86, 103, 104, 161- 
163; see Functional manage- 
ment, Industrial integration, 
Harmony. 

Organized labor, 19, 34, 125, 126, 
140, 141, 144, 169-187, 188, 191- 
193; see Strikes, Employees, 
attitude of. Overwork, Autom- 
atons. 

Outlook, i8n. 

Overwork, evidence suggestive of, 
^7, 78, 79, no, I23n., 154; inves- 
tigations into, 141-144, 188-195; 
natural checks on, 206; sci. 
man.'s plan of avoiding, 212 

Parkhurst, F. A., 116, 117, 144 

Partridge, W. K, 38n. 

Petitions for abolishment of sci. 
man., 141, 188, 192, 193; see 
Employees, attitude of. 

Philadelphia government, sci. man. 
in, 106 

Phillips Exeter Academy, Taylor 
at, 88 ^ 

Photographic records of motions, 
112 

"Piece-Rate System, A," 54-65, 
70, 71, 153 

Piece-work, antagonism resulting 
from, 23 ; ordinary course of, 
32-36; Halsey's adaptation of, 
42-47 ; Taylor's indictment of, 
54; advantages of scientifically 
established, 58, 59; differential 
rate, 59-65, 67 ; resemblance of 
Gantt's plan to, 93 ; Gilbreth's 
substitute for, 125 ; when least 
loss under straight, 155, 156, 
I57n. 

Pig-iron handling, 77-79> 123, 124, 
159, 194 



Planning, separated from per- 
forming, 82, 84, 198; see Meth- 
ods, Organization, Leadership. 

Planning department, 75, 83-86, 
132, 133, i89n., 196 

PHmpton Press, 144 

Popular interest in sci. man., 16, 
17, 18-21, 108, 117, 148 

Premium, see Bonus. 

Premium plan, F. A. Halsey's, 41- 
52, 64, 155, 21 5n. 

Profit sharing, 36-38, 39, 42 

Progressive wages, 65n. 

Promotion, 160, 180, 199 

Pullman Co., 99 

Quarterly Journal of Economics, 
I46n. 

Railroads, sci. man. on, 16, 17, 18, 
22n., 94, 113, 114, 126-129, 158; 
rate-advance cases, see Inter- 
state Commerce Commission. 

Railway Age Gazette, i9n. 

Rate-advance cases, see Inter- 
state Commerce Commission. 

Rate-cutting, evils of, 23, 121 ; 
reason for, 34-35 ; Halsey's plan 
to avoid, 42-47 ; Rowan's plan 
to avoid, 50, 51 ; Taylor's plan 
to avoid, 54, 55, 59; effects of 
stopping, 62 

Rate-fixing, 55, 62,, 69, 70; see 
Time study. 

Reagan, J. C, 145 

Redfield, W. C, 141, 190 

Repair boss, duties of, 85 

Remington Typewriter, 95n. 

Restrictions on output, 34, 47, 54, 
62, 170, I74n. 

Rock Island Arsenal, 140 

Root, Elihu, 2i3n. 

Routing, function of, 71-73 ; ex- 
amples of, I23n., 127, 133, 136; 
value of, 158, 209 

Rowan plan, 50-52 

Santa Fe Railway, 114, 126-129, 

175 
Sayle's Bleacheries, 94 
Scheduling, see Routing. 
Schloss, D. F., 32, 38n. 
Schwab, C. M., 120-122 
Secretary of War, memorandum 

submitted to, 139 



495] 



INDEX 



221 



Selection of employees, 79, 80, 160 ; 

see Promotion. 
Sellers & Co., Wm., 96, 98 
Senate, 141, 192; see Congress. 
Sheel, H. V., i8n., 22n., 117 
Shop disciplinarian, duties of, 86 
" Shop Management," Taylor's 

paper on, i6n., 48n., 66-87, 109, 

116, 122, 130, 153; suggested as 

name for what is now called 

sci. man., i8n. 
Shoveling, at Bethlehem, 77n., 123, 

124, I57n., 159; coal, 154 
"Singing tone," studies of, 112 
Skill, 179, 199, 200 
Slide rule, 75, 92, 97 
Smith, A. B., 113 
Socialism, 209 
Society for the Promotion of the 

Science of Management, 118, 

145 
"Soldiering," 190; see Restric- 
tions on output. 
Special Libraries, 20n. 
Specialization, see Division of 

labor. 
Speed of metal-cutting machines, 

definition of, 74n. 
Speed boss, duties of, 85, 133 
Speeding up, see Overwork. 
Springer Torsion Balance Co., 48 
"Staff, line and," Emerson's, 115, 

162, 163 
Standardization, 69-71, 81, 107, 

127, 157, 158 
Stevens Institute of Technology, 

89, 92 
Stop watch, 56, III, 139. 141, 188- 

198; see Time study. 
Stores management, 80, 132, 133, 

136, 139, 161 
Storey, W. B., 129 
Strikes, 121, 125, 126, 130, 140, 

169, 175, 176 
Supermen under sci. man., 67, 79, 

127, 160 
Supplies, 80, 81 ; see Stores man- 
agement. 
Surgery, micro-motion study of, 

112 
Survey, i8n. 
Symonds Rolling Machine Co., 79, 

124, i2sn. 



Tabor Mfg. Co., 27, jz, 81, 83, 
130-135, 137, 138, 147, 176, 189 
n. I, n. 4 

Task-setting, under sci. man., 23, 
68, loi, 102, 153, 154, 173, 181, 
186 ; see Time study, Overwork ; 
under premium plan, 46 
! "Task Work with a Bonus," 
Gantt's, 24, 67, 92-94, 115, 122, 
195 ; see Bonus. 

Taylor, F. W., life of, 88-91; 
methods used by, 54-87, 9in., 
160, 161, 169-174, 182, 186, 198; 
as leader in sci. man., 16, 22-27, 
30, 92, 97, 98, 99, 108, 109, 113, 
114-117, 118, 130, 134, 145, 148, 
210-213 ; outcome of work of, 
120-125; statements by, 33, 48n., 
106, 108, 136, 147, 166, i68n., 176, 
I77n., 204n. 

Taylor system, i8n., 29, 99. 141, 
190, 2i3n. 

Taylor- White high-speed steel, 90, 
137, 164 

Thompson, C. B., 2on., io6n., I25n., 
I46n., I47n. ; S. E., 106-108, I25n. 

Tilson, J. Q., 141 

Time and cost clerk, duties of, 86 

Time study, place in sci. man., 23, 
55, ^Z, 69, 70, 153-155: elemen- 
tary, 56-59; Taylor's. 9in. ; 
Thompson's, 106-108; Gilbreth's, 
III; Emerson's, 115; at Bethle- 
hem, 122; on Santa Fe, 127; at 
Tabor, 134; at Link-Belt, 136; 
at Watertown, 139; opposition 
to, 141, 188-195 ; when profitable, 
156; under collective bargain, 
173, 181, 186, 187; see Motion 
study. 

Tool rooms, under sci. man., 81, 
132 

Towne, H. R., 22n., 31, 38-41, 48n., 
64, 118, 119 

Trade agreement, see Collective 
bargain. 

Trade lines, under sci. man., 179 

Trade unions, see Organized labor. 

Training for sci. man., 134; see 
University courses in sci. man. 

Tuck School Conference, I9n., 
34n., io6n. 

Union Typewriter Co., 95 
Unions, see Organized labor. 



222. 



INDEX 



[496 



United States, profit sharing in, 
Zl ; premium plan in, 49 ; Rowan 
plan not followed in, 50; as 
home of sci. man,, 148 

Unit times, 65, 68, 153, 154; see 
Elementary time study. 

Universities, sci. man. applied to, 
101-106, i68n. 

University courses in sci. man., 
19, 118, 204n. 

University of Pennsylvania, Tay- 
lor given degree by, 90 

University of Toronto, 104 

Up-keep man, 214 

Van Alstyne, D., 187 

Wages, on railroads, 16; under 
sci. man., level of, 67, 68, 121, 
180, 190, 195, 201-202 ; how fixed, 
86, 173, 181-183, 185, 186, 187; 
groups receiving low, no, 199 

Wage systems — Taylor's, 54-69, 
9in., 182; Gantt's, h^, 92-94, 95, 
19s; Emerson's, 115, 187; in 
bricklaying, 109, 125; at Bethle- 



hem, 122; on Santa Fe, 127, 129; 
at Tabor, 134; at Link-Belt, 135; 
at Watertown, 139; in cotton 
industry, 142; see Day-work, 
Piece-work, Profit sharing, Gain- 
sharing, Premium plan, Rowan 
plan. 

War Department and sci. man., 
141 ; see Watertown Arsenal. 

Watertown Arsenal, 124, 138-141, 
155, 159, 164, 178, 188, 190-193, 
2i3n. 

Weeks, Sen., 192 

Wentworth, G. A., 88 

Western Economic Association, 20 

Westinghouse Electric Co., 95 

Wheeler, Col., I4in. 

White, Maunsel, 90 

Williams, C. C, I4in. ; J. H., 22n., 
I77n. 

Wilson, W. B., I9n., 141, 190 

Women under sci. man., 142-144 

Wyatt, Edith, 142-144, 158 

Yale & Towne Mfg. Co., 4in., 99, 
118, 145 



VITA 



The author was born August 21, 1888, at Dayton^ 
Ohio. After completing the usual primary and second- 
ary work there, he attended Otterbein University (1906- 
10), University of Chicago (summer quarter 191 1), 
and Columbia University (1912-14). At Columbia he 
worked in the seminars of Professors Seligman, Seager, 
Mussey, and Simkhovitch, being under the special direc- 
tion of Professors Seager and Mussey. In addition to 
the above, he studied economics under Professors Clark, 
Mitchell, Fetter, and Anderson. His work included 
courses in sociology under Professors Giddings and 
Chaddock, in the history of English law under Dr. 
Hazeltine, in municipal science under Professor McBain, 
in industrial history under Professor Shotwell, and in 
psychology under Professors Dewey and Woodworth. 

The author holds the degrees of A. B. (Otterbein, 
1 910) and A. M. (Columbia, 1913); and was at the latter 
institution President's University Scholar in Economics 
(191,3-14). He has pubHshed "Organized Labor and 
Scientific Management," Industrial Engineering, March, 
April, May, 1914, the same being reprinted in part in 
Greater Efficiency, March-April, 19 14. He was an in- 
structor in Southwestern University (1911-12), and 
since 1914 has been Instructor in Economics and Soci- 
ology, Ohio State University. 

223 



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